Growing Up Back from America
by dazzling-rainfall
Summary: Updated after 6 months! Sorry for the wait! Ch. 14 - What happens when Sakuno sees a magazine cover of Ryoma with another girl? Will they break up? Will the truth come out?
1. Ryoma's Return

Ryoma was finally returning home to Japan from America. Oh, boy, was he ever happy. He was hoping to return home right after the US Open finished, but his Oyaji made him stay in America a little longer for some training. Ryoma didn't mind the training—he loves tennis—but he really missed his homeland.

Ryoma stepped off the plane and grabbed his luggage.

"Oi! Boy!" Nanjiroh yelled from across the airport. Ryoma looked up and started walking towards him. "So, my son, what are you going to do your first day back in Japan? Go find all your girls so they can kiss you and tell you how much they missed you? Hehe."

"Che," Ryoma responded to his father.

"Are you telling me that you didn't learn ANYTHING about girls while you were away in America?!" Nanjiroh screamed at his son.

"Oyaji, if you remembered correctly, I went to America to play TENNIS, not to check out girls," Ryoma countered.

"Oh fine, whatever. Well, what are you actually doing then your first day back?"

"Tennis."

"Heh, same old boy. Never changes."

They finally reached their house, and Ryoma quickly walked in. He dumped all his luggage into his room then grabbed his racket and headed out. "Bye!" He yelled while walking out the door.

"Hey, wait!" His father replied, waving his hands frantically in the air.

"What?"

"Make sure you're back before your mom and Nanako get here. They've missed you, you know."

"Ah, hai. I'll be back by eight." Ryoma started walking back out the door.

"Don't forget to let the girls kiss you when they tell you how much they've missed you!" Nanjiroh yelled at the retreating figure of his son.

Ryoma arrived at the courts and started hitting against the wall. 'It's so good to be back home,' he thought. He wondered if any of the Seigaku players would be around tomorrow. 'Maybe Momo-senpai will offer a bet for to buy burgers for the winner. Heh, looks like I'll get a free lunch tomorrow,' he added to his thoughts while he continued hitting.

After an hour of hitting against the wall, he looked around to see if anyone was there he could challenge. Nobody was out there. He even scanned passed the trees to see if anybody was walking up. Nope, still nobody. He sighed and returned to hitting against the wall.

_Squeak. Squeak._

Ryoma's ear picked up on the quiet noise right away. 'What was that?'

_Squeak. Squeak. _

'It sounds like shoes.'

The sound of the shoes kept getting louder and louder until, finally, the owner of those shoes rounded the corner onto the tennis courts. Ryoma just stared at the owner. His eyes looked up from the owner's pink and yellow tennis shoes, to the white tennis skirt, to the two long auburn braids, and, finally, to the face with bright shining brown eyes. Then his mind registered who the owner was.

"Ryuuzaki?" He asked.

"Huh?" The owner of the shoes had been staring at the ground while walking. She snapped her head up in surprise when she heard her name. Then she saw the boy she had missed for a year standing right in front of her. "R-Ryoma-kun?" She couldn't believe it. "I-I didn't know you were b-back!" She exclaimed.

"Hn, " Ryoma responded.

Sakuno didn't know what to say. She had so many thoughts circling around inside her head at once. "H-How are you? How was America? You p-played v-very well at the US Open!" She blurted out. Then she blushed after she realized she said all those things all at once.

Ryoma smirked. He found it amusing that she was able to blurt all that out while stuttering and blushing. "Hn, thanks," he replied to her.

"A-are you going to be s-staying here for a-awhile in Japan now?" she shyly asked while her cheeks grew redder with every word she said.

"Yeah, I'm staying here in Japan. I'll just be leaving every now and then for a few tournaments," Ryoma informed her.

"A-ah! That's great, R-ryoma-kun!" Sakuno excitedly exclaimed. Her eyes were shining brightly at the good news. "W-well, I g-guess I will see you around R-ryoma-kun! Welcome back!" Then she turned around and started walking back out the courts.

After Sakuno turned around, Ryoma turned his attention back to his racket and the wall. 'Hn,' he thought, 'Looks like I'm back to hitting against the wall again. Somebody should just show up already. Wait—'

"Ryuuzaki!" Ryoma yelled out right before she turned the corner to leave. Sakuno stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"What is it, Ryoma-kun?"

He smirked and pointed his racket at her. "Let's play a match." Just then, a gleam went through his eyes.


	2. Fixing the Shattered Glass Heart

**Chapter 2 – Fixing the Shattered Glass Heart**

"_Ryuuzaki, let's play a match," Ryoma demanded with a gleam in his eyes._ Ryoma was laying in his bed that night thinking back on his match with Sakuno.

"_E-eh! Me?" Sakuno asked, shocked._

"Hn_."_

"_D-demo, I'm not very good, Ryoma-kun."_

"_Hn. I know. That's why you need the practice," he smirked._

"_Mou! Ryoma-kun!" blushed Sakuno._

_They stepped on the court and started playing. It didn't take long for Sakuno to start panting while she was running around the court. In twenty minutes, Ryoma won the match 6-0. "Mada mada dane." _

"_Thanks for playing with me R-Ryoma-kun. I should get home though now before it gets dark. I will s-see you at school next week."_

"_Hn."_

Thinking back on it now, he was surprised he asked Ryuuzaki to a match. Usually he would only ask people who would give him a challenge. For some reason, though, he asked Ryuuzaki. And he actually _enjoyed_ it. 'She's getting better at tennis. She bent her knees and her feet weren't too far apart. Her hair is still too long though. Hm, mada mada dane, Ryuuzaki.' He smirked again. Ryoma kept thinking about his match with Sakuno, and eventually, he fell asleep.

The sun was peeking its way through the window and onto Ryoma's face. "Mmmph," he mumbled. Slowly he opened his eyes. He was still tired. He was about to close his eyes again when suddenly…

"Hey! Boy!!!" Nanjiroh screamed at the top of his lungs and swung Ryoma's door wide open. "Rise and shine, Ryoma! You've got work to do!"

"Heh, Oyaji, haven't you ever heard of jet lag? I need some more sleep," Ryoma groggily answered.

"Well, it's not my fault you decided to stay up late playing tennis instead of getting some extra sleeping time. Or maybe you were just kissing back all those girls who missed you, eh? Well, either way, you chose that over sleep. So get up, boy!"

"What do you want?" he asked, irritated.

"I need you to give these papers to the old hag *cough*, umm, I mean Ryuuzaki."

"Why do I have to do it?" he mumbled through his pillow.

"Because this is your paperwork to play tennis again for Seigaku! And Ryuuzaki is your coach now, not mine! Hahahahaha!" Nanjiroh laughed evilly.

'Wait, Ryuuzaki?' Ryoma thought while Nanjiroh kept talking.

"Well, I guess you don't really have to bring them over to her…" Nanjiroh continued.

'Ryuuzaki…Sakuno will be there. Heh, I never got the chance to tease her about her playing after our match. Maybe I could do it now.'

"…but if you don't have the paperwork in, you won't be able to play your most beloved tennis." Nanjiroh finished.

"Fine, I'll do it," Ryoma agreed. He didn't even hear anything his dad just said about him not being able to play tennis.

"Good," Nanjiroh said. 'Tennis is really the only thing to make him do anything these days. I can't wait 'til he finally grows up so I can use girls as his motivation, not tennis,' he slyly thought. Little did he know that his son really was growing up, for the only reason Ryoma agreed to go was because he wanted to tease Sakuno.

"Sakuno!" Sumire yelled up the stairs.

"Coming!" she replied, clumsily running down the stairs to her grandmother. "Yes, Obaa-chan?"

"I found some more glass shards from your broken jewelry box that you missed out in the backyard. Could you please pick them up and throw them away? " she asked.

"Ah, hai, Grandma." Sakuno remembered the incident. The broken glass pieces were from her heart-shaped jewelry box in which she kept a picture of Ryoma. Just yesterday, Sakuno decided she was so tired of being heartbroken for a year, that she threw her glass jewelry box out her bedroom window. It crashed and shattered when it hit the ground. She thought she had picked up all the pieces yesterday, but she must have missed some.

As Sakuno was walking out the door to go outside, she glanced at her racket and was reminded of her match with Ryoma last night. 'Mou, I thought I was over him! But he just had to come back the day after I shattered my hopes of him noticing me. And what does he do?! He asks me to play a match with him! Oh, I really am not over him. Last night proves it, too. I kept stuttering and blushing like it was my job.' She grabbed her racket in frustration as she headed out the door so she could practice against the wall after she picked up the broken glass.

She walked over to the glass pieces, right below her window. It also happened to be by the wall she practiced tennis. Ever so carefully, so she wouldn't cut herself, she picked up the glass shards and threw them in the trash. 'Now I can practice tennis,' she thought happily. Picking up her racket, she faced the wall and started hitting the ball against it. "1, 2, 3,…"she started counting outloud.

Ryoma reached the Ryuuzaki residence. Bringing his hand up to the door, he was about to knock, when he heard that oh-so-glorious noise…

_Pok. "Ninety-five."_

_Pok. "Ninety-six."_

…the sound of tennis balls hitting off the strings of a racket.

_Pok. "Ninety-seven."_

He followed the sound and walked around the corner of the house.

_Pok. "Ninety-eight."_

That's when he saw Sakuno. 'Hn. Her form looks pretty good,' he thought. But still…

_Pok. "Ninety-nine."_

…it was then he decided to make his presence known.

"Hair's too long," he simply stated, making Sakuno gasp in surprise and miss her hundredth shot against the wall. Her racket slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground.

"R-ryoma-kun! I d-didn't know you were here! A-And my hair is not too long!" She replied.

He smirked. Teasing Sakuno about her hair was one of his favorite things to do, after tennis, of course.

She bent down to pick up her racket. As she did so, she felt a jab in her finger.

"Ouch!" she cried. She looked down at her hand and saw a medium-sized piece of glass stuck in her finger. 'I thought I picked all of the glass pieces up! Mou!' While she was inspecting it, Ryoma walked over to her and looked over her shoulder to see what she just cried about.

"Hn. You should get that out." He grabbed her wrist and led a blushing Sakuno inside the house. After he walked into the kitchen, he pulled out a chair. "Sit," he demanded her. Sakuno did as she was told. "Where's your first-aid kit?" he asked.

"It's in the bathroom," she told him. He left towards the bathroom to grab it and returned soon after. He brought a chair over in front of Sakuno and sat down facing her. Then, he opened the kit and took out the pliers.

"Give me your hand," he said. However, after Sakuno saw how deep the glass piece was in her finger, she didn't want anybody pulling it out, not even Echizen Ryoma. She shook her head vigorously. "Ryuuzaki," he sighed, "you have to get that out or it will get infected. It's in too deep." Sakuno looked up and her eyes looked wary. Ryoma realized that Sakuno was scared because she knew it was going to hurt. After realizing this, Ryoma softened his tone and, just this once, he decided he had to be gentle. "You can trust me. I'll only let it hurt you a little," he softly told her, adjusting his cap to hide the small blush arising on his face. She looked up at him, contemplating whether or not she wanted to let him take the glass out. They held eye contact for some time. Then Ryoma saw Sakuno's eyes shift from fear to trust. Still holding eye contact, he slowly reached out his hand to gently grab hers.

Ryoma took the pliers and gently pulled the glass piece out of her finger. Once the glass piece was removed, her finger started bleeding.

"Eh! Oh, it's bleeding!" Sakuno whimpered.

Ryoma quickly pulled out a band-aid to calm Sakuno down, and wrapped it around her finger.  
For some unknown reason, he just decided that he hated seeing Sakuno hurt. After applying the band-aid, he took her finger and kissed it. He looked up at Sakuno, only to see her blushing.

"A-arigatou, Ryoma-kun," she stuttered and blushed. Unknowingly to both of them, Ryoma was putting back together that shattered glass heart of Sakuno's.


	3. Hair's Too What?

**Ch. 3 – Hair's Too…What?**

Ryoma just finished bandaging up Sakuno's finger when Ryuuzaki Sumire walked in with the groceries.

"Ah, Ryoma, nice to see you here. Welcome back to Japan," Coach Ryuuzaki greeted him.

"Hn. Thanks," he replied.

"So, Ryoma, will you be playing for Seigaku again this year? You do know that if you want to play, you will have to have your paperwork turned in by tomorrow?" Sumire asked.

"Hai, I have them right here."

"Ah, thank you. So glad you're playing for us again. How long will you be here in Japan?"

At this question, Sakuno raised her head and stared at Ryoma, waiting for his answer. Ryoma looked over at Sakuno when he felt her staring at him. "For awhile," he replied to his Coach while keeping his eyes locked on Sakuno. Sakuno felt her face warm up.

'Hmm…looks like Ryoma's grown up a little bit since he's been gone,' Sumire thought. 'Looks like he's changed a bit too—his personality and attitude has gotten a little improvement.' She smiled with that last thought. How great it would be to finally not have a bratty and arrogant tennis prodigy to coach anymore. Hopefully this small glimpse of him being a little more sociable was a permanent change.

"Well then, since you will be here in Japan for awhile, how about you start giving Sakuno tennis lessons again?"

"Grandma!" Sakuno exclaimed, embarrassed. "You told me I was getting better at tennis! Do I really still need to take lessons?"

"Che, yes," Ryoma answered for her with his trademark smirk.

"Mou!" Sakuno blushed.

"Alright, the tennis lessons will be on Sundays. Would you like to start tomorrow then or next week? I know you just got back so you still probably have jet lag," Coach Ryuuzaki got back to the topic.

Ryoma took a quick glance at Sakuno, who was still blushing, and answered, "I can start tomorrow." Then he added under his breath so only Sakuno could hear, "You need as much practice as you can get."

"Good," Sumire said while turning back to put the groceries away.

"Mou! Ryoma-kun is so mean!" she stuck her tongue out at him, but he just smirked back.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

It was Sunday. Sakuno got up extra early so she would have plenty of time to get ready. She rummaged through her clothes in the dresser, trying to find the perfect outfit to wear. Finally, she decided on her white frilly tennis skirt and her pink racer-back tank top. Then she brushed her teeth and her hair. 'Hm, maybe I should put my hair up in a bun. Ryoma-kun always says it's too long,' she thought. She put her hair up in a cute messy bun while running down the stairs. 'Mou, I'm going to be late!' At the bottom of the stairs, though, she saw that her Obaa-chan had set out her tennis bag and a quick breakfast. 'Obaa-chan is so nice.' Grabbing her tennis bag and breakfast she flew out the door while saying, "Bye, Obaa-chan!"

Sakuno came running and panting to the court where Ryoma was waiting for her on a bench.

"Ryuuzaki, you're late," Ryoma told her.

"G-Gomen, Ryoma-kun!" She stuttered and blushed, bowing over and over again. He smirked. He just loved to make her stutter and blush.

"Let's start," he said. "For today, just warm up against the wall. You will be working on your form."

Sakuno took out her racket and a tennis ball and started to hit against the wall. For the next five minutes, Ryoma watched Sakuno hit. Being Ryoma, he started to get bored. Watching tennis was definitely not as much fun as playing it. 'Wait,' he suddenly thought, 'This is Ryuuzaki that I'm watching. Heh, I can always start teasing her about her tennis. That's always fun.' And then he started.

"Knees are too bent," he said, in his normal, bored voice. He watched Sakuno try to straighten up her knees a little bit.

"Arms are too straight," he added with a bored sigh.

"Mou!" Sakuno complained.

Ryoma was about to criticize her hair when he realized that something was different. Sakuno's hair was actually not long. It was up in a bun. Short. 'Hn,' Ryoma thought, and then he smirked.

"Hair's too short," he bluntly stated with a triumphant smirk.

"Mou!" Sakuno complained again. "E-Eh? What?! My hair is too short?!" First her hair was too long, and now it was too short? She just didn't understand what he wanted. She started to fume as she started walking towards Ryoma. "What is the problem with my hair? It has nothing to do with tennis! You don't like it long and you don't like it short! I might as well be bald!" She fumed at him, frustrated.

Ryoma, on the other hand, was loving seeing her like this. Rarely ever did Sakuno let people pull out her angry side, and Ryoma felt proud that he was one of the few that could actually do this. He thought Sakuno looked so cute getting all upset about his silly comment on her hair, and he was having the most difficult time trying to hide his smile.

"What do you want my hair to be like, Ryoma-kun? Long, short, or bald? Huh? What is it?" Sakuno continued yelling at him.

Ryoma stood up from the bench he was sitting on and reached out his hand to take out the hair pins that were holding her hair in place. Sakuno stopped her fuming when she felt his hand on her hair. As characteristic of her, she started to blush. As he took the last one out, her hair cascaded beautifully down her back, and he answered back, golden eyes staring into her deep brown ones, "Long."

"W-What?" Sakuno asked, confused.

_"Long,"_ he repeated.

Sakuno was now really confused. "But you always said my hair was too long!"

Ryoma smirked, took a strand of her hair in his fingers, and said, "Mada mada dane, Sakuno. Mada mada dane."


	4. In His Arms

**Ch. 4 – In His Arms**

Sakuno and Tomoka were at the tennis courts, watching the Regulars play their matches, or more like just watching Ryoma's match . Tomoka was babbling on to Sakuno about Seigaku's latest gossip, but Sakuno really wasn't listening. Instead, she was thinking about the past year with Ryoma since he had returned from America. Their relationship had really changed ever since he came back. Now, instead of ignoring her like he did when they were twelve, he actually notices her. Sure, he's not always nice to her—he teases her like it's his job. But still, it was better than nothing, right?

She still clearly remembers the night when Ryoma really began to notice her. _It was a year ago, when he was giving her tennis lessons. He started to tease her about her hair, and Sakuno started to yell at him for insulting it. Ryoma pulled her hair out of her bun and loosely took hold of one of her strands of silky brown hair_. Ever since that night, Ryoma began to talk to Sakuno more. Eventually, Ryoma began to ask if Sakuno would be coming to watch the Seigaku Regulars' matches…every day that they had one. She didn't really understand why he asked that—she always did go to every match they had AND every practice. He even asked her this morning at school if she was coming to his match today, just to be sure. But those were the only times he was actually the nicest. Other than that, he would just tease her endlessly with that smirk on his face.

Now, they were both fourteen and third years at Seigaku. Ryoma was captain of the team, and it was his match now that would be the deciding factor if Seigaku would win the meet or not.

It was an intense match; the score was 4-4. Ryoma's opponent started to get upset and throw his racket around after every point he lost. After one point, he threw his racket and it broke in half, and little pieces shattered all over the court. Some pieces even flew over the fence. Ryoma smirked, knowing that his opponent was aggravated. Now this match was all his to take.

The score was 5-4, 30-0. Two more points and Ryoma will win the match. He could hear his teammates cheering for him, along with Tomoka's ear-piercing voice. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sakuno silently cheering for him with a blush on her face. He doesn't know why, but lately he's been in the habbit of making sure Sakuno is always there watching his match. Not only does he ask her if she's going to come, but he actually skims the fence every time before he steps out on the court to see if she's there. Not that he doesn't believe her when she says she's coming--Sakuno never lies! For some reason, though, it's just comforting to him to see her face when he's playing.

Ryoma did his famous twist serve, and he aced his opponent. "40-love," the umpire stated.

"UUUUugghhh!!!!!" Ryoma's opponent screamed. His face was red and heated up from all his anger. As he was fetching the tennis ball that he couldn't return, his anger was getting harder for him to contain. He walked up to the net to hand Ryoma the ball for his next serve, but, while he was handing it over, he took his racket and held it high in the air. He just couldn't let Echizen win this match. "AAAHHH!," he screamed as he swung his racket down hard and struck Ryoma's face.

"AHH!" Ryoma briefly exclaimed in pain, but quickly stifled his outburst. He brought his hand up to his face and felt warm, sticky blood drizzling down his cheek.

"R-Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno screamed. She ran to the court entrance and stopped at Ryoma's side. "R-Ryoma-kun, are you okay?" she asked him, dabbing his face with a towel she grabbed off the bench.

"Hey, little girl!" Ryoma's opponent yelled, walking towards Sakuno. "Get off the court, little girl! Can't you see we're having a match here?" he yelled again while grabbing Sakuno's shoulders and pushed her down.

"He's hurt! And it's your fault!" Sakuno screamed back at him, trying to push him away. This did not go over well with Ryoma's opponent.

"Little girl! Aren't you being a little disrespectful? Especially to me, your senpai?" he angrily picked her up by her shirt and rammed her up against the fence.

"Ittai!" she painfully screamed.

"Oi!" Ryoma icily glared at his opponent with fire blazing in his eyes. "Get your hands off her!"

The guy turned back to look at Ryoma. He grinned evilly and held Sakuno as high up as he could and said, "As you wish," and let go of her. Sakuno landed right on her knees.

"EH!" she cried. Sakuno tried to get up, but pain would shoot through her knees with any force she applied.

"Players!" the umpire announced. "We will be resuming the match now!"

"Fine by me. I've been wanting to resume ever since it started," Ryoma's opponent replied smartly.

"Wait!" Echizen stalled. "Players get one medical time-out per match. I want to take mine."

"Yes, Echizen that is correct," the umpire complied. "But just to follow the rules, you need to state your reason for a medical time-out. The reasoning must strictly be applied to you."

"My reasoning is to bandage the cut on my face," Ryoma bluntly stated.

"Alright. Echizen Ryoma has permission to take a medical time-out," the umpire declared to the audience. After the umpire approved his medical time-out, Ryoma walked over to Sakuno and held out his hand to help her up. She took it, winced with pain when she got half-way up, and then collapsed back to the ground. Ryoma, noticing that she was in pain, scooped her up bridal style and carried the blushing Sakuno to the bench. "Echizen, what are you doing? This is not allowed for your medical time-out," the umpire declared.

"Yes it does," Ryoma countered. "She's my medical trainer." Then he set Sakuno down on the bench.

"R-Ryoma-kun?" she asked, looking up into his eyes and blushing.

"Are you ok?" he asked her as he gently touched her knee.

"I'm f-fine," she winced. Her wince did not go unnoticed by Ryoma, however.

"Hn. Just sit here for now. I'll take a look at your knees after the match." Then he turned around and started to walk back onto the court.

"R-Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno said right before he stepped back onto the court. "Your medical time-out—you d-didn't bandage your c-cut!"

He looked back and smirked at her, "Mada mada dane, Sakuno." He walked back onto the court and looked at the umpire.

"Are you ready to resume?" asked the umpire, looking at the two players on the court. Both of them nodded. "Echizen to serve. The score is now 40-love," the umpire began to continue the match.

Ryoma looked at his opponent. The guy was laughing shamelessly at him, "How's your little girlfriend over there? Haha." Ryoma narrowed his eyes and glared threateningly at him. This glare could defeat Tezuka's glare any time, anywhere. There was no way that Ryoma would allow anybody to get away with hurting Sakuno. Ryoma adjusted his cap and focused on taking in all his energy into his serve. He tossed the ball up and carved the ball with his racket, creating immense topspin, speed, and power on the ball. The ball bounced in on the court and sped up powerfully and flew high right into his opponent's face. Ryoma's hit was so powerful that, when it hit his opponent, he fell unconscious.

"Game, set, and match to Echizen! Seigaku wins!" the umpire officially declared. The audience cheered for him and for Seigaku, and everybody could hear Tomoka's screams. Ryoma paid no attention to the cheers, but walked straight up to Sakuno. He knelt down in front of her and looked at her knees. They were pretty bruised and scraped up. He was sure that she would have a hard time walking, and, if she did try to walk, her knees would start to swell up. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to walk, he picked her up again and started to carry her out the courts.

When the fans saw him carrying her bridal style outside, they started whistling. Tomoka yelled out, "Sakuno, you are so lucky! Getting carried by the Prince!!"

Sakuno blushed, "T-Tomo-chan!" Ryoma just smirked at her response. Then Sakuno started to notice that everybody was looking at them. Not liking this new-found attention on her, she said, "R-Ryoma-kun, you c-can p-put me down. I can w-walk."

"No you can't," he told her.

"Y-yes I c-can walk, Ryoma-kun. R-Really, I th-think my knees are all b-better now. P-Please, put me down," she insisted as more and more people started whistling at them.

Doing what Sakuno told him, Ryoma put her down gently. Then he slowly took his hands off her, making sure she had her balance. She took one step forward, but the pain in her knees was too much, and she started to fall back down. Ryoma caught her quickly in his arms before she would hit her knees on the ground again. "Che," he smirked. "So you can walk, huh?" he whispered in her ear. Sakuno blushed and gasped as Ryoma swept her off her feet effortlessly. "I'm carrying you, and that's final." Her face turned bright red, and he smirked again at her.

Ryoma carried her through the crowd towards the school exit. On the way, he ran into Coach Ryuuzaki. Watching the whole match, Coach Ryuuzaki knew about the incident with Sakuno. She was glad that Ryoma was finally noticing Sakuno—it was making her granddaughter so happy. But, still being the overprotective grandmother that she was, she stopped Ryoma and made it very clear to him, "Thanks for bringing Sakuno home, Ryoma. Make sure you take her home _and that's all_."

It was at that moment when Nanjiroh came out from the crowd and yelled, "That's my boy! Ryoma, you're finally growing up!" The crowd laughed at his remark.

Ryoma slightly blushed, but, since he was holding Sakuno, he was unable to cover it with his hat. Sakuno, on the other hand, had more than a slight blush on her face. Trying to hide it, she turned into Ryoma's shoulder. "Mou, this is embarrassing," he heard her muffled voice.

Wanting to get away from the crowd's stares, Sakuno looked up into his face, and shyly asked, "C-Can you take me home now, R-Ryoma-kun?" The crowd started whistling and hooting again upon hearing Sakuno's request.

Ryoma, also wanting to get away from this embarrassing crowd, replied, "Hn." He maneuvered through the crowd quickly and skillfully, and he started the walk home with Sakuno in his arms.


	5. Number Ones

**Ch. 5 – Number Ones**

Ryoma carried Sakuno all the way back to her house. He was actually surprised at how light Sakuno really was. Once they reached the door, he carefully put Sakuno down so he could turn the handle. Still holding onto her so she could put her weight on him instead of her knees, he walked her through the door. After they got through the door, Ryoma lifted Sakuno up again and laid her down on the couch.

"Stay here," he told her.

"W-Where are you going?" she asked.

"Gonna get some stuff to clean your scrapes on your knees." Ryoma soon returned with some disinfectant, towels, and band-aids. He took a towel and ran it under warm water. Then he gently laid it on her knees and wiped clean her scrapes.

The warm towel felt good, yet hurt her knees at the same time. "Eh," Sakuno bit her lip to prevent herself from showing any pain.

"Sorry it stings," Ryoma said.

"W-What?" she asked.

"I saw you bite your lip. It stings."

"H-hai," she agreed.

Ryoma was almost done wiping out her cuts with the warm towel. Soon, he would have to put on the disinfectant, which, he knew, would sting much more than the warm towel did. Not wanting to see her in pain, he tried to distract her while he was cleaning her cuts.

"Let's play a game," he started.

"O-Okay. What game?"

"It's called Number Ones. We take turns asking questions that have to do with our 'number ones.' I'll start. What is your number one favorite color?" Ryoma asked.

"Pink!" Sakuno said amazingly without stuttering. "You?"

"Silver."

"M-My turn to ask a question?" she asked.

"Hn," he nodded his head. 'Good, I think this will work as a distraction,' he thought. While Sakuno was thinking of a question, he picked up the spray of disinfectant.

"What's your number one favorite food?" Sakuno finally decided on her question.

"Ponta," he replied.

" E-Eh?! That's not food Ryoma-kun!" she exclaimed.

He smirked, "Yes it is. It's edible, isn't it?" *Spray* While he was answering Sakuno's question he sprayed the disinfectant on the first cut.

"Y-yes, I g-guess so," she thought.

'Hn, she didn't notice I sprayed the disinfectant,' he thought, proud of himself for being able to distract Sakuno.

Then he continued so he could keep disinfecting her cuts, "You didn't answer your own question. What is your number one favorite food?" *Spray*

"I-I like strawberries. Ok, your turn Ryoma-kun," she answered, her stutter slowing going away.

"Hn, what is your number one fear?" he asked. *Spray*

"Storms," she shivered. "Yours?"

"Monks and magazines."

"Eh?" she asked confused.

Ryoma just smirked. "Never mind."

It was Sakuno's turn to ask a question. "What is your number one hobby, besides tennis?" *Spray* 'Done,' Ryoma finished disinfecting the last cut.

"Sleeping," he answered her.

"Cooking," she responded.

"Ne, you're almost better now. I just have to put these bandages over your cuts."

"Wow, I d-didn't even know you w-were already s-spraying the disinfectant. I d-didn't feel anything," Sakuno resumed her stuttering after she realized how good Ryoma was at taking care of her cuts.

Ryoma smiled the teeniest smile. Nobody, except for Tezuka, would have been able to recognize that that was a smile.

After Ryoma just finished bandaging up Sakuno's last cut, Coach Ryuuzaki walked through the door.

"Ah, Ryoma, I see you've done a good job at taking care of Sakuno for me. Thank you very much," she told him.

"Betsuni," he replied.

"Sakuno," Coach Ryuuzaki turned to her granddaughter. "I will be leaving to go to a tennis meeting tonight, and I won't be back until tomorrow afternoon. I have some extra groceries for you to make your own food while I'm away. Oh, and it may storm tonight, but I will turn on extra night lights for you around the house."

"O-Okay, Obaa-chan," Sakuno replied with a frightened face. From playing the game earlier, Ryoma understood why she looked so frightened. He felt sorry for her, not that he would ever admit that to anyone, but he just does not like to see Sakuno hurt or scared.

"Oh, Ryoma," Coach Ryuuzaki just remembered that he was still there, "will you be staying for dinner or are you heading home?"

"I'll be heading home," he told her.

"Okay. Well, thank you again for taking care of Sakuno. And nice match by the way."

"Hn. Thanks." Ryoma headed towards the door.

"R-Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno stopped him right before he walked out the door.

"Hn?"

"U-um," she started to blush, "th-thank you for b-bringing me home and t-taking care of my knees."

Ryoma stared at her for awhile, just looking at her blush. Then he pulled his cap down over his eyes and said quietly, "Your welcome." He walked through the door and started his way home.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Ryoma got home and made his way straight to the kitchen. He was starving for dinner, and he hadn't eaten since before his tennis match earlier that day.

"Ah, Ryoma, you made it home just in time for dinner," his mom said.

"Nanjiroh! Time for dinner!" she yelled out to the living room where his father was reading his precious magazines.

They sat around the table and started to eat dinner.

"So, my boy," started Nanjiroh in between mouthfuls of rice, "did you take Sakuno-chan home?"

"Hn," Ryoma answered.

"What were you doing there for so long, huh?" he started chuckling to himself. "You know I was talking to Coach Ryuuzaki longer so I could give you some more time alone with Sakuno-chan!"

"Che, baka, Oyaji," Ryoma glared at his father. Really, why does this strange man have to be his father? he wondered.

"WHAT?!" Nanjiroh exclaimed with tears gushing down his face. "My son! How can you be my son?! You really should be noticing girls by now; you've got all the great looks from being an Echizen! You know, I had my first girlfriend when I was seven. And you're already fourteen! You are twice as old as I was when I had my first girlfriend, and you still don't have one! Oh, what have I done wrong with raising my child?" he cried.

"Ugh," Ryoma groaned. He was tired of hearing his father complain. "I'm going to bed."

"Fine then, be that way," Nanjiroh pouted childishly.

"Good night, Ryoma," his mother said.

"Good night, Mom."

"Good night, son! Sleep tight!" his father bade him farewell for the night.

"Che, whatever, old man," he replied.

"AAH!! Sure, be nice to your mother, but not to your father! Rinko, what have I done wrong to our son?" he asked.

Rinko took Nanjiroh's magazine stash and slammed them on top of his head. "_These_ should be kept away from our son…and especially from you!"

"N-No, you see, it's just a m-misunderstanding! I ordered _tennis_ magazines and they switched up the order and gave me these! Heh, heh," he nervously covered up with a sheepish grin on his face.

"Sure they did," Rinko answered and left the kitchen to leave Nanjiroh eating dinner all alone that night.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, you're doing the dishes tonight," Rinko popped her head in quickly before leaving again.

"WHAT?!" Nanjiroh cried.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Ryoma laid in his bed, listening to the rain drip on his window. "I wonder if Sakuno's ok," he talked to his cat, Karupin. Karupin, of course, just stared back up at him and purred along, minding his own business.

'Baka,' Ryoma thought, 'It's just raining. It hasn't even started storming yet and you are already worried about Sakuno?'

/Flash/

*BOOM!*

"Well, I guess the storm's starting now…" Ryoma thought aloud.

/Flash/

*BOOM!*

~flicker~

The lights went out. "NOOO!" Nanjiroh complained. "The power's out! Now I can't read my magazines!" Ryoma could hear his father yell all the way from his bedroom to downstairs.

"Baka, Oyaji," Ryoma muttered under his breath. Then he thought, 'The power is probably out at Ryuuzaki's house too. That means all those night lights Ryuuzaki-sensei put up won't work for her. He thought back to earlier that day. _"Hn, what is your number one fear?" he asked. "Storms," she shivered._'

Then he turned around to face his dresser.

/Flash/

The brightness of the lightning shone off his cell phone. 'Hn,' he thought, 'even though the power's out, cell phones will still work.' Then he remembered the time when Momo and Eiji-senpai "sneakily" stole his cell phone after practice one day and saved Sakuno's number in it. 'Heh, I have her number. Maybe I should call her and see if she's okay.' He grabbed his cell phone and started calling Sakuno.

*Ring*Ring*

"Hello? *sniff*" Sakuno answered her phone.

"Ryuuzaki?" He asked, just to make sure.

"*sniff* Yes, it's Ryuuzaki Sakuno. *sniff* Who is this?"

"Echizen." He could tell that Sakuno had been crying.

"R-Ryoma-kun! *sniff*"

"Ryuuzaki, are you ok?" he asked urgently. He really does not like it when she is crying—he's not used to being worried. 'Why am I so worried about her?' he thought.

"A-Ano…I-I'm f-fine *sniff*," she stuttered and her voice cracked.

'Liar,' he thought. "Sakuno," he gently said, "I know you're scared. You told me your number one fear was storms."

"Mou," Sakuno was caught in her lie.

"Sakuno, you're crying."

"Mou," she complained again. She really didn't like that she's so easy to figure out.

"Me and my Oyaji are coming to pick you up in ten minutes. You can stay the night here."

"EH?-" but Sakuno was cut off by Ryoma.

"Bye." He hung up before she could refuse his offer.

"Oi! Oyaji!" Ryoma started to tell his father that they needed to go pick up Sakuno, but Ryoma didn't want his father to know that his son was "finally growing up." He didn't want to hear any of his embarrassing comments. Quickly, Ryoma made up an excuse. "Ryuuzaki-sensei called my cell phone and said that we need to take care of her granddaughter tonight. She said she doesn't want her to be alone in a storm like this."

"Ah, yes, I do remember the old hag saying she was going to be gone for a tennis meeting tonight," Nanjiroh said. "Looks like you get another chance to get yourself a girlfriend! Two chances in one day, boy! You know you're lucky that the gods are giving you another chance!"

"Che, baka," Ryoma glared, but pulled down his cap to hide the light blush creeping on his face.

"Well, c'mon, let's go," Nanjiroh said and they hopped in the car.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Ryoma and Nanjiroh picked Sakuno up at her house, and they were just now arriving back to the Echizen household. Nanjiroh pulled in the driveway, took the only umbrella in the car, and ran into the house yelling, "Ryoma! Make sure you keep Sakuno-chan dry! You don't want the old hag getting upset if we gave her a cold now, do you?" he chuckled, obviously proud of his plan to force Ryoma to get close to Sakuno.

"Baka Oyaji," Ryoma muttered.

Ryoma and Sakuno stepped out of the car. He grabbed her small bag she brought with, and then he quickly draped his jacket over her shoulders. "Hurry up," he said, while trying to cover his blush with his hat.

"A-Arigatou," Sakuno blushed.

They got inside the house, with Sakuno all dry and Ryoma soaking wet.

"Here, you can sleep on the couch right here. I'll go find you a blanket." Ryoma left to find a blanket. He grabbed one in the closet and then came back to where Sakuno was sitting.

/flash/

*BOOM!*

"Eehh," Sakuno whimpered.

Ryoma saw Sakuno sink back into the couch in fear. Not wanting her to be scared anymore, he approached her and said, "It's ok now, Sakuno. I'll be right upstairs if you need anything. Here's a blanket for you." He was about to go upstairs to his room when a loud crack was heard in the sky.

"Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno cried.

"Hn?" he asked.

"R-Ryoma-kun…a-ano, c-can you s-stay h-here for a little while?" she shivered in fear.

"Hn, okay. Let's play the Number Ones game until you fall asleep, ok?" he asked.

"Okay."

Ryoma started the game again. "What is your number one best subject in school?"

"H-History," she said.

"English."

/flash/

*BOOM!*

There was no whimper from Sakuno this time, for she was distracted from the game once again.

"What is your number one goal?" she asked sleepily.

"Beat my Oyaji in tennis," Ryoma replied automatically.

"Hmm…to be…a great chef…" Sakuno was getting tired. She couldn't fight keeping her eyes open much longer.

"What is your number one favorite…" Ryoma noticed that Sakuno's eyes were closed. "Ryuuzaki?...Sakuno?" he whispered, making sure she was asleep. He took the blanket and lightly laid it on top of her. Heading towards the stairs, he heard Sakuno stir in her sleep.

"Ryoma-kun…is my…number one…" she murmured in her sleep.

To this, Echizen Ryoma actually smiled.


	6. He Noticed

**Ch. 6 – He Noticed**

Several months have gone by ever since the incident with the storm. Ryoma had felt quite comfortable with Sakuno ever since then, and now they could be considered friends. Ever since Ryoma heard Sakuno mumble to herself, "Ryoma-kun is my number one," in her sleep, he had found her quite interesting. He didn't like to see her hurt or afraid from before, but he just thought he cared because she was his coach's granddaughter. But now, she had his full attention, and not just becuase she was the coach's granddaughter. Not only did he notice her when she was hurt or afraid, but now he noticed her when she was happy or excited. Echizen Ryoma actually noticed a girl.

Ryoma was now walking through the snow to meet up with his former Seigaku teammates, who were now all in high school, to go eat at the burger joint. They decided to meet Ryoma at his school since the high-schoolers get out earlier.

"Echizen!"

"O'Chibi!" They called when they saw Ryoma walking out the building.

*Plop*

*Plop*

Momo and Eiji threw a snowball at either side of Ryoma's face the minute he walked towards them.

"Really, senpais?" Ryoma glared at them for their immature, childish behavior.

"Aww, c'mon, O'Chibi!" Eiji pouted. "It's the first snowfall of the year! Being hit with a snowball is bound to happen to everybody today."

*Plop* *Plop*……..*Plop*Plop*Plop*

Ryoma was now covered in a pile of snowballs. Just out of nowhere, Fuji, Oishi, Kaidoh, Taka, and Inui circled around him and threw the snowballs at him. Tezuka, of course, was standing aside, not partaking in any of this child-like activity.

"Thanks, senpais," Ryoma commented sarcastically.

Then Momo, who was right in front of Ryoma, picked up a snowball and brought it up in the air. Just as he was about to throw it, Ryoma icily commented, "You throw that and RUN, Momo-senpai."

Momo sweat-dropped, afraid of Ryoma's threat, and slowly put the snowball back on the ground. "If anybody throws one more, you have been warned," he threatened the rest of the group.

*PLOP!*

Somebody threw a snowball from behind him and hit the back of his head.

"I said," Ryoma started, getting angry, "you throw that, you run!" Glaring, he turned around to see who had thrown the snowball behind him. Seeing who it was, his eyes widened.

"Ryuuzaki?!" he exclaimed. Upon seeing her, his eyes softened from the glare to amazement and surprise.

Sakuno stood in front of him giggling. Becoming friends with him in the past few months, Sakuno learned that Ryoma could never get mad at her, so she decided to test it out with a snowball. "Ne, Ryoma-kun, you don't like the snow much, do you?" she teased. Ever since they had become friends she didn't stutter as much around him.

He smirked at her and said, "Mada mada dane, Sakuno. I told everyone, you throw that and _run_."

Sakuno just kept on giggling. Then he started to walk towards her, slowly at first, with that smirk still on his face. As he got closer, his speed increased. When he started to get closer, Sakuno could see the look of determination in his eyes and knew that he was serious.

"Eep!" Sakuno yelled and started running.

Ryoma started chasing after her. "Ryuuzaki, get back here!"

However, Sakuno was clumsy and not a very fast runner, so Ryoma soon caught up to her. When he got close enough, he jumped forward and tackled her into the snow.

"R-Ryoma-kun!" He started tickling her while she was caged in between Ryoma's knees.

"Haha, R-Ryoma-kun! " She laughed. "Stop t-tickling me! M-Mou!"

It was then he noticed he liked the sound of her laugh.

"Ryuuzaki," he told her, still keeping her down, "you know that I never lose."

"Ryoma-kun, I think you won now," she laughed, with her eyes brightly shining. He noticed the bright sparkles in her chocolate eyes when she's happy.

"Good," he smirked, staring into her beautiful eyes with his smoldering ones.

"R-Ryoma-kun? " Sakuno stuttered and blushed. "A-Ano…" Her voice trailed off, never finishing what she was starting to say. Ryoma noticed that Sakuno would stutter whenever he stared at her.

"What were you going to say?" he asked her and smirked.

"A-Ano," Sakuno tried again, "Y-you are s-staring at me," She blushed a deep shade of red. He noticed that her blush was only reserved for him, and nobody else.

After she said that, Ryoma realized that he actually had been staring at her for quite some time now. He took one more quick glance at her before he quickly made up an excuse. He smirked at her and said, "Mada mada dane, Sakuno." Then he gave her a real smile—the smile, he noticed, that he gave to nobody else but her.

"C'mon, let's go," he told her while giving her his outstretched hand to pull her up out of the snow. He could feel his senpais staring at him in disbelief. 'Since when did Sakuno-chan and Echizen get so close?' they thought.

To cover up his recent display of affections for this girl in front of his senpais, Ryoma plastered that smirk back on his face and told Sakuno, "Hey, Ryuuzaki, you should come with us to eat some burgers."

"Eh?" Sakuno asked. "W-well i-if it's okay with you guys… I don't want to interrupt while you're catching up with each other."

"Of course it's okay. You said I won, remember? Therefore, you owe me—you're paying for my burgers," he smirked arrogantly as he looked at Sakuno with the look of victory in his eyes. After stating this, the Seigaku Regulars saw that Ryoma was back to his normal self.

'Just when I thought he was about to confess!' Momo thought. 'But no! He just went back to his normal, dense, arrogant self!'

Fuji, on the other hand, caught something else. 'How long are you going to try to cover up your feelings for her, Echizen?'

Inui, not wanting to forget the whole scene he just observed, quickly took out his notebook and started writing his newly-observed data on Echizen Ryoma. His journal read, "Echizen Ryoma noticed Ryuuzaki Sakuno."


	7. The Best Birthday Ever

**Ch. 7 – The Best Birthday Ever**

Another year had come and gone, and now Ryoma and Sakuno were in high school, once again reunited with all their senpais. It was just like the old days: Tezuka was buchou, Ryuuzaki Sumire was Coach, Momo ate burgers, Inui still made his juice, and Ryoma was still the prince of tennis.

Tennis may be, in fact, the only thing that Ryoma was good at, his teammates finally concluded. The Seigaku Regulars were tired of painfully watching Ryoma not doing anything to change the current status between him and Sakuno.

Sure, they were good friends now, but Ryoma had yet to do anything to go beyond that. It was obvious that both of them liked each other. Ryoma only showed his gentle side to Sakuno, and it was also only around Sakuno he would talk the most. He would walk her home every day after practice. Sometimes he would even buy her a burger on Fridays or treat her to Kawamura's sushi. As for Sakuno, well, the whole school knew that she had liked Ryoma since she was twelve!

"So, Echizen, what are you doing for your birthday tonight?" Momo asked as they were walking towards the locker room to change out of their practice clothes. Yes, it was Ryoma's fifteenth birthday today, and, yes, Tezuka-buchou made them practice today in the snow. Buchou made them shovel the snow off the courts everyday that winter so that they could still hold practice. Even though they had done it every day that winter, Ryoma was not very ecstatic that they had to shovel the snow off the courts on his birthday. And he also was not very ecstatic that Sakuno wasn't there to watch them practice—she's never missed one before!

"Hello?? Echizen, snap out of it!" Momo yelled at Ryoma to get him out of his daze.

"Hn? Oh, sorry, Momo-senpai," Ryoma answered, sounding a little depressed.

"What's up with you today, Echizen? It's your birthday today! You should be happy!" Momo exclaimed.

Fuji came in and said, "I think I might know why Echizen isn't in the best mood today."

"Ooh, Fuji knows? Please tell, nya!" Eiji bounced up and down.

Then Inui walked by with his notebook in hand, "According to my data, today is the first day that Sakuno has missed a practice."

"That is exactly it," Fuji affirmed it. "Looks like Echizen misses Sakuno-chan," he creepily smiled.

"Che, whatever," Ryoma commented. The Regulars looked at each other; they all knew that Ryoma was covering up his feelings for Sakuno once again.

"Why don't you just ask her out already?" Kaidoh asked him, surprising everybody that he was actually concerned about his kohai. "Everybody knows you two like each other."

"Saa, Kaidoh is right, Echizen. You better ask her fast, too, or Sakuno-chan might get tired of waiting and move on," Fuji told him.

"I'm leaving," Ryoma responded.

Ryoma walked out of the locker room and headed on his way home. As he was walking, he passed by the grocery store. He looked in the window and Sakuno with a bag in her arms. 'So this is where she was today,' he thought.

"Sakuno, is this why you weren't at practice today?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"H-hai, Ryoma-kun. Gomen! I really wanted to go, but Obaa-chan told me that I had to get some groceries for her." Sakuno explained.

"Hn," he said. Ryoma was staring at her. Her long brown hair was down today. She had on a blue scarf and mittens. The cold, outside air had left her cheeks a rosy pink. Ryoma thought she looked adorable.

"R-Ryoma-kun, y-you're s-staring again," Sakuno stuttered and blushed.

"Hn," he smirked back at her. He really didn't care if Sakuno caught him staring at her; he only cared if it was his senpais that caught him.

Ryoma looked at the bag she was carrying and said, "Here, let me take that. I'll walk you home."

"A-Arigatou, Ryoma-kun."

When they reached Sakuno's house, she asked, "Ryoma-kun, would you like to come in for some hot chocolate?"

"Sure," he replied.

They walked into the kitchen, and Ryoma put the bag of groceries down on the counter while Sakuno started making the hot chocolate.

"Ne, Ryoma-kun, it's your birthday today isn't it?" Sakuno asked.

"Hn," he answered.

"Are you doing anything special for it?"

"No, my parents are having a Christmas Eve party at our house tonight, so they're pretty busy."  
"Oh yeah, that's right. Obaa-chan is going to that party tonight."

After she said that, his interest sparked up. "Are you going with Ryuuzaki-sensei?" he asked, with a tint of hope in his voice.

"H-Hai," Sakuno blushed.

'Hn, my birthday may have finally gotten better,' Ryoma thought to himself.

Sakuno took her hot chocolate and went into the living room. Ryoma followed her as she turned the tv on. They both sat down on the couch and looked at the tv. Neither one of them were really watching, though. Both were trying to think of what to say to start a conversation up again.

Ryoma glanced over at Sakuno who was still "watching" the tv. She was blushing prettily again. 'Does Sakuno really like me?' he wondered. 'Of course she does, you baka! You know she only blushes when you're around!' his inner voice answered himself. 'And Kaidoh-senpai even said, _"Everybody knows you two like each other."_ '

*Ring*Ring*

It was Sakuno's cell phone.

"Hello?" she answered. Ryoma could hear that it was a guy's voice on the other end. "Sorry, I can't play tennis with you tomorrow. I'm spending time with my obaa-chan for Christmas." The guy on the end talked again. "Ok, bye." She hung up the phone.

'So some guy wanted to play tennis with her tomorrow? On Christmas of all days! Who was that and how did they get her number?' Ryoma was starting to get jealous.

"Who was that?" Ryoma asked.

"Hm? Oh that was Horio. He called because he wanted to play tennis tomorrow."

"Does he call you a lot?"

"A-Ano, I guess. He calls me three times a week."

"What for?" Ryoma demanded. He was getting irritated with some guy calling Sakuno three times a week without his knowing.

"A-Ano, he calls for d-different things each time," Sakuno started stuttering because she felt Ryoma was getting angry.

"Like?" Ryoma really wanted to know.

"L-like t-to play tennis, or g-go to the movies, or a-ask a question about our homework."

Ryoma was really angry. How could Horio do this to him? Everybody knows that Sakuno was supposed to be his. It was like some unwritten law that the whole school knew about.

"Do you go with him when he asks?" Ryoma got back to the interrogating questions.

"N-No, I u-usually don't."

"Good."

"W-What?"

"I said _good_. "

It was silent for a few moments. Sakuno just sat there blushing, while Ryoma tried to calm himself down.

"Just don't answer the phone anymore when he calls," he said when he was somewhat calm.

"B-But Ryoma-kun, that is mean! Horio-kun is our friend!"

"I don't care. Just don't answer," Ryoma fumed, getting upset again.

"O-Okay, Ryoma-kun."

Ryoma sighed and thought back to earlier that day about what Fuji said. _"You better ask her fast, too, or Sakuno-chan might get tired of waiting and move on."_

'Hn, I guess it's now or never. Especially since other guys like Horio are starting to notice her, too,' he thought nervously. He really had no idea how to go about asking a girl to be his girlfriend. 'I should've listened more to Oyaji,' he thought.

"Sakuno," he started. "What do people think of us?"

"What do you mean, Ryoma-kun?"

"I mean," he sighed. This was going to be harder to get out than what he thought. "What do you other people think of us when they see us together?"

"People know we're good friends."

"Is that it?" he hoped it wasn't.

"W-Well, n-no…" Sakuno paused, trying to decide if she should tell Ryoma more. "Horio-kun is never happy when he sees us together."

"Che," he remarked. Well Ryoma was not very happy with Horio right now either.

"And," Sakuno continued. She looked a little nervous for what she was going to say next. "A-And a lot of y-your f-fangirls get upset with m-me when they s-see me with you."

"Why is that?" he asked. He was completely oblivious about his fangirls.

"A-Ano, they think that I'm d-distracting y-you f-from n-noticing them," she shyly said.

'Oh,' he thought, 'so that was the reason why he was completely oblivious to his fangirls. Sakuno really _was_ distracting him from them.' The truth was that he never noticed other girls; he only saw Sakuno. "Well," he whispered, getting a little nervous himself, "what if what they said were true?"

"W-What do you m-mean Ryoma-kun?" she asked, confused.

"What if what they said about you distracting me from them was true?" he asked, but this time with more detail. He saw her blush, and he knew she finally caught on to what he was saying. Too nervous to stay to hear her response, he quickly said, "You can tell me what you think when you come over to the party tonight." He stood up to leave, but before he left, he took off his hat and put it on Sakuno's head. "Ja," he waved as he opened the door.

Once he left, Sakuno whispered to herself with her eyes shining brightly, "Really, Ryoma-kun? Is what you said true?" Then she smiled to herself and blushed while she thought, 'Ryoma-kun wants me to be his girlfriend!'

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Guests were starting to arrive at Ryoma's house for the Christmas party. Everytime somebody would knock on the door, Ryoma would jump and his eyes would get wide.

"Heh, Ryoma, what's gotten into you tonight, eh? You jump five feet high every time somebody knocks on the door," his father commented to him.

Another knock on the door, and Nanjiroh answered it. "Welcome, Ryuuzaki. So glad you could make it." After hearing the name "Ryuuzaki," Ryoma ran to the door. His eyes dropped when he didn't see Sakuno by her side. "Well, come on in, Sumire. It is too cold outside," Nanjiroh politely said to his guest.

After Sumire walked in, Ryoma saw that Sakuno was hidden behind her grandmother. She was looking down at her feet, with a blush on her face. His heart stopped beating for awhile, afraid of what she was going to say. Then she looked up at him and smiled shyly. It was then he noticed that Sakuno was wearing his hat, and he smiled warmly at her.

"Sakuno," he happily said.

Upon hearing that there was another guest at the door, Nanjiroh quickly turned around to see who was there. He saw a cute, young girl wearing his son's favorite hat. "Ah! My boy, you are finally growing up!!!" he yelled. "Rinko, our son has a girlfriend! Finally, he has taken an interest and carried on the Echizen pride!"

Ryoma, however, paid no attention to his father's teasing. He was only staring at Sakuno, thinking how cute she looked wearing his hat. Ryoma walked past his father, smiled gently at Sakuno, and grabbed her hand, leading her inside the house.

Ryoma showed her around the house, the whole time holding her hand. People stared at them with their jaws dropped open, surprised that Ryoma was actually holding hands with a girl, but he didn't care because he just got the best birthday present ever.


	8. Trust Me

**Ch. 8 – Trust Me**

*BRING!*

The school bell rang signaling the end of school. Sakuno walked quickly to her locker to grab her books to leave. She didn't want to be late to meet Ryoma. Ever since Ryoma's birthday, they met by the sakura tree everyday to walk to Ryoma's tennis practice together.

"Sakuno!!" Tomoka screamed down the hallway.

"Eh?" Sakuno turned around. "Hi, Tomo-chan!" she smiled at her best friend.

"Tomorrow is your birthday, and I am soo excited!" Tomoka squealed.

"T-Tomo-chan, n-not so loud," she blushed. "And why are you so excited about my birthday tomorrow?" she asked confused.

"O-Oh! N-No reason!" Tomoka nervously replied.

"Okay, whatever you say, Tomo-chan."

"What? Can't I be excited for your birthday? Sheesh, Sakuno, I am your best friend, so, of course, I would be excited for you!"

"Th-That's fine, Tomo-chan," Sakuno replied a little bit confused again. "I have to get going, though; I'm going to be late to meet Ryoma-kun."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Ryoma was leaning against the tree, waiting for Sakuno.

"Hey, Echizen!"

Ryoma turned around to see Momo walking towards him.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you going to practice today?" Momo asked him.

"Yeah, I'm going to practice," he answered shortly.

"Well, then, what are you doing here? You're going to be late and then Tezuka-buchou is going to make us run extra laps!" exclaimed Momo.

"I'm waiting for Sakuno." Ryoma pulled down his cap to hide his blush.

"OOOhhh! Waiting for Sakuno-chan!!! Ah, young love, young love," Momo teased him. "Hey, Eiji! Ryoma here is waiting for Sakuno-chan!" he called Eiji over.

"O'chibi!! Way to go!!" Eiji came running over to them to put Ryoma into a headlock.

"Eiji-senpai! I c-can't breathe!" Ryoma choked out. Eiji sadly let him go.

"So, O'chibi, you and Sakuno-chan have been going out for a month, right, nya?" Eiji asked.

"Hn," Ryoma answered. He adjusted his cap again to hide the blush growing on his cheeks. Talking about his relationship with Sakuno was something that he wasn't quite used to yet.

"For a month already, Echizen? I can't believe it's been that long already!" Momo started. Then he grinned suspiciously. "Have you kissed her yet, Echizen?"

Ryoma wasn't expecting that question from his senpai. "N-NANI?!" he exclaimed. His face started turning red, and his cap couldn't hide all of it.

"O'chibi! You haven't kissed Sakuno-chan yet?" Eiji exclaimed. "You have delayed this for too long, O'chibi! What if Sakuno-chan breaks up with you because you haven't kissed her yet?" he cried dramatically.

"Che, she's not going to break up with me."

"Maybe Echizen doesn't know how to kiss. What do you think, Eiji?" Momo teased again.

"Nya! I bet that's it, Momo!"

"Che, shut up, senpais," Ryoma glared at them, trying to get rid of his blush.

"Ooh, touchy now are we?" Momo grinned at him.

"It's none of your business, senpais!" Ryoma yelled at them.

"Okay, okay, O'chibi. We'll leave you alone. Nya! Momo! Let's get to practice before we're late!" Eiji said, and they left leaving Ryoma glaring at their backs.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Sakuno ran out the school doors panting. She saw Ryoma leaning against the sakura tree with his cap covering his eyes. Sakuno knew she was late, but she couldn't tell if Ryoma was upset with her because she couldn't see his eyes.

"S-Sorry I'm l-late, Ryoma-kun," she apologized.

"Hn, it's fine," he answered.

"Well, we should probably go, so you won't be late for practice," she said, grabbing onto his hand. She started to walk towards the tennis courts, but Ryoma just stayed there.

"R-Ryoma-kun, are you okay?" she asked.

Ryoma, still holding onto her hand, pulled Sakuno towards him.

"R-Ryoma-kun?" she asked.

Ryoma just stared into her eyes. Still leaning against the tree, he pulled Sakuno closer by her waist.

"R-Ryoma-kun, w-why are y-you s-staring at me?" she asked timidly.

He just smirked. 'She's still not ready, yet. Maybe tomorrow,' Ryoma thought and sighed, observing her nervous state. "Mada mada dane, Sakuno," he answered her. Little did his senpais know that that was the reason why he hadn't kissed her yet--it's not like he hadn't tried.

He stood up against the tree, lightly brushed Sakuno's hair out of her face, and smiled gently at her as he placed his hat on her head. "C'mon, let's go," he said, and they walked hand-in-hand to practice.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The next day at school, Sakuno noticed that she hadn't really seen Tomoka all day. But, finally, the school day was over, and, hopefully, Tomoka would meet Sakuno at her locker.

"Hi, Tomo-chan," Sakuno greeted as she neared her locker. "I haven't seen you around all day. Where have you been?"

"Ahaha, oh, you know, classes, people…things just come up," she said suspiciously. "C'mon now, Sakuno-chan, you should hurry, or you'll be late for meeting Ryoma-sama."

"Hai. I will see you later Tomo-chan!" Sakuno waved.

Sakuno walked towards her and Ryoma's sakura tree. "Hi, Ryoma-kun!" she said happily upon meeting her boyfriend.

Ryoma smiled at her and said, "Happy birthday, Sakuno."

"Arigatou, Ryoma-kun," she blushed prettily.

"C'mon, let's go," he said and grabbed Sakuno's hand. Instead of walking towards the tennis courts, though, he led her out the school gate.

"But, Ryoma-kun, don't you have practice?" Sakuno asked, confused.

"Practice was cancelled," Ryoma simply explained.

"Oh." They continued on walking in silence until they reached Sakuno's house.

When they walked up to the door, Ryoma stopped Sakuno from going any further.

"Hold on," he said. He walked behind her and put his hands over her eyes.

"Can you see?" he asked.

"Ryoma-kun, what are you doing?" she asked, frustrated that she didn't know what was going on.

Ryoma chuckled a little and said, "I'll take that as a 'no.' And I can't tell you what I'm doing; it's a secret." While still covering up her eyes, he kicked the door open and led her inside.

The minute he uncovered her eyes, Sakuno heard, "SURPRISE!"

Then she saw that all the tennis Regulars, the Ichinen trio, and Tomoka were there to celebrate her birthday with her.

"A-Arigatou, everybody!" she smiled happily.

Immediately, the cake was brought out, and the Regulars dove in to eat it. Once the cake was completely gone, they all went to the living room to play a game.

"Nya! What game are we gonna play?" Eiji excitedly asked, bouncing up and down.

"How about Truth or Dare?" Tomoka suggested.

"Saa, I like that idea, Tomoka-chan," Fuji replied.

They all sat in a circle, and Momo volunteered to be the questionnaire.

"Ok," Momo started, "let's begin!"

"Horio, you will go first," Momo said. "Truth or dare?"

Horio was afraid of what Momo would make him do, so he chose "truth."

"Ok, truth it is. Horio, who do you have a secret crush on?"

Horio gulped and started sweating as he said, "S-Sakuno-chan!"

Ryoma instantly wrapped his arm around Sakuno's waist and brought her closer to him. Then he glared maliciously at Horio.

Everybody sweatdropped after seeing Ryoma glare at Horio, and Momo nervously laughed and said, "Moving on." Momo continued going through everybody in the circle. Then he got to the last person, Ryoma, and grinned evilly at him.

"Echizen, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Ryoma said, not fazed by Momo's evil grin.

"Echizen, I dare you to kiss Sakuno-chan!"

Ryoma glared at Momo; he didn't want their first kiss to be in front of their senpais. But, not wanting to back down from a challenge, Ryoma turned to face Sakuno. Sakuno was blushing furiously and stared down at the carpet below them. Ryoma lifted her chin up with his finger. He looked into her eyes for awhile, trying to read her expression. Her eyes were wide, and, he wasn't exactly sure, but he thought that her eyes held fear. He leaned in closer to her, but right before his lips touched hers, Sakuno turned her head and ducked down to avoid the kiss.

Momo and Eiji laughed at Ryoma hysterically, "You lost, Echizen!"

Ryoma, however, wasn't listening to them. He was trying to figure out what Sakuno was thinking. He looked at her with confusion and hurt in his eyes. 'Did I do something wrong?' he thought. 'Why doesn't she want me to kiss her?'

Seeing that Ryoma was frustrated and thought it best if they all left for Sakuno and him to talk this out, Tomoka quickly said, "Okay, everyone, the game is finished! We should all go home now so you guys can get some rest for your tennis practice tomorrow."

Tomoka stayed to make sure all the Regualrs left as soon as possible. When everyone was out, except for Ryoma, Tomoka went up to Sakuno and said, "Happy birthday, Sakuno. I'll call you later tonight, ok?"

Sakuno nodded, and Tomoka gave her a quick hug then left.

Now it was just Ryoma and Sakuno in the house. Ryoma noticed that Sakuno was avoiding his gaze. He could tell that she felt guilty for embarrassing him in front of his senpais.

"Sakuno," Ryoma started.

Even though she was facing him, she didn't bring her head up to look at him.

"Sakuno, look at me," he tried again.

She turned her face towards him, but still wouldn't look him in the eyes.

"Look in my eyes," he told her.

Slowly she brought her head up to look in her eyes. He could see that her eyes were starting to tear up.

"Sakuno, did I do something wrong? Did I hurt you?" he asked urgently. He hoped he wasn't the one that was making her cry.

She didn't answer right away, which made Ryoma worry.

"Gomen, Sakuno. I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you, whatever I did. Sakuno, I am really sorry!" he cupped her face in his hands.

"Y-You d-didn't do anything w-wrong, Ryoma-kun," Sakuno finally said, a little embarrassed.

Ryoma looked confused. "Then what's wrong Sakuno?"

Sakuno's tears started to fall from her eyes and down her cheeks. "I'm scared," she whispered.

Ryoma quickly wiped the tears off her face with his thumb. "What are you of afraid of, Sakuno?" he asked gently.

"A-Ano," she blushed, "Igetscaredwhenyou'reabouttokissme." She talked so fast that Ryoma didn't understand the jumble of words.

"What did you say?" he asked, still talking in a gently tone to her.

Sakuno , embarrassed of her fear, hugged Ryoma tight and pressed her face against his chest. Ryoma tightly hugged her back. She started again, slower this time, "I g-get s-scared when you're about t-to k-kiss me."

Ryoma smirked after hearing what she was afraid of. "That's what you're afraid of? Why is that?"

"I d-don't k-know, Ryoma-kun," she answered.

Then he realized that Sakuno was afraid of him kissing her because she was afraid of two things: 1) She was afraid of the unkown, and 2) She doesn't know what to do when he kisses her.

Then he said, staring deeply into her eyes, "Do you trust me, Sakuno?"

"Y-Yes, o-of course I do, Ryoma-kun."

"Then everything's going to be okay." Still holding her face in his hands, he leaned in closer.

"A-Ano, R-Ryoma-kun,--" Sakuno started to panic.

"Shh," he placed his finger on her lips, "it's going to be alright. Just trust me."

Sakuno closed her eyes and tightly held on to Ryoma's arms. He smirked at her cute behavior and closed the distance between them, finally tasting her sweet lips. He kissed her slowly, not wanting to overwhelm her. Then, he slowly backed away from her so he could look into her eyes.

"See?" he said. "It's all right, just like I promised. You can trust me—always," he told her again, stroking her hair.

"A-Arigatou, R-Ryoma-kun," Sakuno said blushing a deep red, but, Ryoma noticed, her eyes were shining brightly—she was happy.

He smirked at her. He cupped her face again with his hands and bent down to her face again. However, because he wanted to take it slow with Sakuno and wanted her to be comfortable with kissing him, he decided on kissing her on the forehead instead of on the lips again. Then he hugged her and said, "Happy birthday, Sakuno. Happy birthday."


	9. First Date

**Ch. 9 – Lesson under the Stars**

Sakuno met up with Ryoma at their sakura tree to walk to his tennis practice together. Walking together to practice was something they always did. It was a few months after Sakuno's birthday, and the weather was finally warm again with the sun brightly shining.

Ryoma held onto Sakuno's hand tightly as they walked towards the tennis courts. This was his favorite part of the day—walking with Sakuno to tennis practice. He had to leave her to go change into his practice clothes, but always came back fast to talk with her for a few minutes before practice started.

As they reached the courts, Ryoma squeezed Sakuno's hand and said, "See you after practice." Sakuno waved goodbye to meet up with Tomo-chan.

"Echizen! Come hit with me!" Momo yelled at him after seeing Ryoma arrive.

"Che, fine," Ryoma said upon Momo's demand-like request.

While the Regulars were practicing, Eiji, always so curious, started to bombard Ryoma with questions. The first few were pretty random, like, what his favorite color was, and what name he would want if he were a cat. Then, out of nowhere, Eiji asked him a question about his personal life. And not only about his personal life, but his _love_ life of all things. "Ochibi, how are things going between you and Sakuno-chan?"

Ryoma's eyes went wide and missed the ball he was about to hit. He started blushing, so he pulled his cap down over his face. "Fine," he choked out.

"Just 'fine?'" Eiji asked, wanting details.

"Yes, just 'fine,' Eiji-senpai. You don't need to know about my personal life," he glared.

Fuji, noticing that Ryoma didn't like to be bothered with questions about his love life, decided that he would join in on the conversation. "Echizen, you sound a little defensive there. Are you sure things are just 'fine?'"

"Hn," Ryoma responded, irritated.

"But," Fuji continued, "what if Sakuno-chan doesn't think things are just 'fine?' When was the last time you two have talked about your relationship?" He gave Ryoma one of his creepy smiles.

Honestly, Ryoma could not remember the last time he and Sakuno talked about their relationship. Actually, he couldn't remember if they had ever talked about it at all. He just assumed that if everything was going fine, then why would they need to talk about it?

"Che, whatever, Fuji-senpai," Ryoma answered.

Then, Momo said, "How do you know for sure everything's fine if you don't talk about your relationship with her?"

"If it's fine, why talk about it?" Ryoma asked him.

"Because," Momo started to explode at him, "you will know how she's feeling about you! What if she starts falling away from you and you won't even know it because you never talk about your relationship with her! I bet you don't even know what happened today!"

"What do you mean--what happened today?" Ryoma asked, not following where Momo was going.

"What?! You don't know?! Some high school guy asked Sakuno-chan out this morning!" Momo screamed at Ryoma.

After hearing this, Ryoma's eyes bulged. Sakuno did not tell him this throughout the whole day.

Momo continued to scream at him, "This guy asked her out on a date! And do you know what Sakuno-chan said?"

Ryoma started sweating a little bit from Momo's question, for he did not know what Sakuno told the guy. Thinking back now, she was a little quiet on their walk together to the tennis courts.

"She said she was flattered and that the date sounds fun, but that she will have to decline," Momo told him in a dangerous voice. "Sakuno-chan said the _date_ sounded _fun_. Do you know what that means?"

Ryoma gulped, "N-no."

Then Fuji came in again, "Well you would know if you would talk to Sakuno-chan about your relationship more often. She said that the date sounded fun, but she can't go. Echizen, have you ever gone on a date with her?"

He blushed and answered, "N-no, not really." Then he lowered his head and faced the ground.

"Echizen, Sakuno-chan wants to go on a date," Momo scolded him. "And you might want to hurry up on that before your relationship isn't 'just fine' anymore."

"Especially if other boys are asking her out on dates, it reminds her that her own boyfriend doesn't even take her out on dates. If she keeps getting reminded about this, your 'just fine' status may stagger for the worst," Fuji told him wearing that plastered smile of his that never leaves his face.

Ryoma tried to cover his frightened face with his cap and smoothly covered his fears by saying, "Che, whatever, Senpais. I'm going now. Ja." After saying that, Ryoma left practice and went over to the wall to hit so he could think by himself.

'Is our relationship "just fine?"' he thought while hitting the ball against the wall.

_Pok._

'I always thought our relationship was good, but I guess I really don't know what Sakuno thinks.'

_Pok._

'What if she is really bothered for never going on a date, yet?'

_Pok._

'What if she wants to go on a date?'

_Pok._

'What if she wants to go on a date…with that other guy?'

_POK._

After that last thought, Ryoma started to hit the ball even harder against the wall. He did not like the fact that some other guy whom he doesn't know asked his Sakuno out on a date.

'I'll show him,' he thought. 'I'll show him that Echizen Ryoma is the only guy that Sakuno will ever go out with on a date.'

Before he knew it, he had been hitting and thinking for two hours straight. All the Regulars had gone home and the sun was starting to set in the sky. In fact, he could now see the moon starting to come out along with a few stars.

Ryoma was so upset about that guy beating him to asking Sakuno out on a date that he picked up his phone and started dialing Sakuno's number.

_Ring. Ring._

"Hello?" Sakuno answered her phone.

"Meet me at the tennis courts in thirty minutes," Ryoma said and then hung up.

'Great,' he thought, 'now what am I going to do? Why did I tell Sakuno to come to the tennis courts?'

In thirty minutes, Sakuno miraculously showed up on time at the tennis courts, panting, of course. She was running there so she wouldn't be late.

"R-Ryoma-kun," Sakuno gasped out, breathing in air, "what's this about? I mean coming to the tennis courts so suddenly tonight?"

'Why did I call her here tonight?' he thought. Then he quickly made up an excuse. "Isn't there something you need to tell me?"

"Tell you what, Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked, her head tilted in a confused state.

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen today?" Ryoma asked again, with a serious expression.

"W-Well, I g-guess there was s-something d-different that happened today…" Sakuno started. She was getting nervous for what Ryoma was going to think of her. Was he going to break up with her because he might think that she doesn't want to be Ryoma's girlfriend anymore?

"And that was…" Ryoma tried to refocus Sakuno back from her drifting thoughts.

"I w-want y-you to know that I d-didn't w-want this to h-happen! H-Honest!"

"Okay, well what happened?" Ryoma continued to probe.

"Well, a j-junior asked me o-out on a d-date with him," Sakuno said guiltily and looked away.

Ryoma knew that Sakuno felt bad that this happened and that she had no intentions of leaving him judging by the remorse and guilt written all over Sakuno's face. He decided to lighten up the mood for her. He tilted her chin up and he was now just inches away from her. "And what did you tell him?" he asked softly, still holding her chin up. His face was closing in towards hers.

"I said n-no," Sakuno said with her huge, beautiful eyes shining truthfully into Ryoma's. She started to blush from the closeness of Ryoma.

Just as he was about to touch her lips, he whispered, "Good," and turned his head to kiss her on the cheek. He backed away to look at Sakuno. Finding that Sakuno's eyes held slight disappointment from him not kissing her on the lips, Ryoma smirked at her, "Mada mada, dane."

"Mou, Ryoma-kun! What was that for?" she pouted playfully.

"Grab one of my extra rackets there," he commanded her and pointed to the extra racket on the bench.

"O-Okay, but why?" she asked curiously.

"We're going on a date," Ryoma simply stated.

Sakuno started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"You are so obsessed with tennis, Ryoma-kun. Your idea of our first date is playing tennis together?" Sakuno smiled cheerfully at him while giggling.

"Hn, mada mada, dane," Ryoma smirked again.

"Okay, well let's get this date started," Sakuno said excitedly while entering her side of the court. Ryoma, noticing how happy she was for their first date, slightly smiled.

"Just feed me some balls, and I will hit them at my targets," Ryoma told her. Sakuno did as she was told, and she fed him the tennis balls in the hopper. The first one he hit landed in on the court, and then bounced and stuck into the chain-link fence. Then, she realized, that all the balls he was hitting were getting stuck in the fence. To keep her from getting distracted, Ryoma reminded her, "Keep feeding me some more." Sakuno continued to feed him tennis balls, and eventually stopped looking back to see if they were getting stuck in the fence—she was sure that Ryoma was strong enough to hit them all in it.

Some of the balls Ryoma hit would come close to Sakuno's face, but Sakuno knew that Ryoma would never hit her. She trusted him fully. Seeing that Sakuno didn't become scared when he hit close to her face, Ryoma smiled, knowing that he had gained Sakuno's trust. Then he would hit other balls further away from her, but all of them were focused around Sakuno.

"Okay, you can stop feeding them now," Ryoma told her. "Now close your eyes."

"Ryoma-kun, why do I need to close my eyes?" Sakuno asked, not understanding what he was doing.

"Just close them," he smiled.

Sakuno closed her eyes and then heard Ryoma walking around to her side of the court. He placed his hands over her closed eyes and turned her around so she was facing the opposite direction, towards the chain-linked fence. He slid his hands off her eyes and then wrapped his arms around her waist. Lowering his head to her ear, he whispered, "Now, open your eyes."

Sakuno opened her eyes and found that she was now facing the fence—the fence that had all the stuck tennis balls that Ryoma had just hit. The more she stared at it, the more she realized that the tennis balls weren't randomly placed. Ryoma had hit them with accuracy to form something out of it. Sakuno's eyes widened when she finally saw what the tennis balls were all arranged as. The fence had tennis balls stuck in it in the shape of a heart! This must have been why all the tennis balls he hit were around Sakuno. Inside of the heart were the initials "R+S."

"Ah, R-Ryoma-kun," Sakuno said, amazed, "a-arigatou!" Then she turned around in his embrace so she could hug him as well. "Ryoma-kun, I love it! You are truly amazing!"

Ryoma smiled at her, looking deeply into her bright, shining, happy eyes. "You're welcome," he said and then he hugged her back tightly. Then he said, while smirking a little, "Can that junior boy do that on his first date?"

Still hugging, Sakuno gave him a smile, saying, "Thank you, Ryoma-kun. This is the best first date ever...and hopefully my last." She blushed while saying the last thought, and Ryoma was beaming inside.

"It better be your last first date," Ryoma told her playfully. Then he leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head. Above them two shooting stars shot across the bright night sky.


	10. Mada Mada Dane, Sakuno

**Ch. 10 – Mada Mada Dane, Sakuno**

A year had passed since Ryoma and Sakuno's first date. Now, they were both sixteen and had gone on several other dates as time had passed. They were both really opening up to each other—Ryoma was showing more emotions around her and Sakuno was becoming more brave and outgoing around him.

It was a Friday afternoon, and Ryoma had told Sakuno that he would help her with her English homework after tennis practice. He had told her to meet him in Room 313 to do the homework. Practice had finished thirty minutes ago, and Sakuno was still not in Room 313.

'Ugh, where is that girl?' Ryoma wondered, glancing at the clock. He wasn't upset with her for being late, he was just worried about her. 'Could those fangirls be bombarding her again with pranks?' That last thought put him over the edge, and he stormed over to the door to head out of the classroom in search of Sakuno. There was no way that he was going to let those crazy fangirls hurt his Sakuno. Just as he was about to turn the handle, the door burst open, and Sakuno ran through. Not knowing that Ryoma was just on the other side of the door, her running through it ended up in her tackling Ryoma to the ground.

"Oi, Sakuno, what's with the tackle?" Ryoma asked her about her sudden outburst through the door.

"Ah! Gomen, gomen, Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno bowed and apologized.

"It's okay. You don't need to bow to me, Sakuno," Ryoma told her and grabbed her hand. "What took you so long? Were those fangirls bothering you?"

"N-No, they weren't bothering me. I'm sorry, Ryoma-kun. I was just resting under the sakura tree when I realized I was late."

"Oh, that's okay. Just let me know if those fangirls touch you," he commanded.

"Hai, Ryoma-kun, but why are you asking so many questions about your fangirls?" Sakuno asked curiously.

Ryoma thought about that for awhile. He was always worried that his stupid fangirls would try to hurt Sakuno since she was his girlfriend, but why was he so worried about that? He made sure that his fangirls wouldn't even lay a finger on Sakuno by talking to Sakuno's best friend, Tomoka, to handle the outrages once they found out he had a girlfriend. And Tomoka gladly obliged to help him. In fact, he could hear her giving threats to the whole Ryoma fanclub about not touching Sakuno all the way from the tennis courts to the classroom. Ryoma even had his senpais watch out for Sakuno in the hallways at school. So why was Ryoma so worried about her, still?

Since he didn't even know the answer to Sakuno's question, he decided to avoid it by changing the subject. "Should we get started on your English homework? I don't want you to spend your whole Friday night doing homework; we should try to finish it early."

Lucky for him, this question distracted Sakuno, and she quickly agreed. Ryoma, still holding onto her hand, guided her to the desks. They sat down, and Sakuno began to dig through her bag trying to find her homework.

"Thank you for helping me with my homework, Ryoma-kun," Sakuno smiled at him, "especially since it's a Friday afternoon."

"Hn, it's no problem. This should be a breeze," Ryoma assured her.

Sakuno's eyebrows scrunched up in frustration, and she said, "I wish it was a breeze for me, too."

Ryoma chuckled a little, "I promise you that I'll help you pass this class. And, besides, it gives us an excuse to hang out more often anyway."

Sakuno smiled and blushed after hearing that. She really did appreciate the time that he gave her. She knew that Ryoma was getting really busy with tennis lately, especially since he was becoming closer and closer to becoming a world professional tennis player. Thinking of it, she knew that Ryoma gave her a lot of time than what he should be giving her; he needed to get all the practice he could so that he could reach his goal of becoming a pro.

Ryoma smirked at Sakuno after seeing her blush. He really did love that blush. Sometimes he worried that one day he would not be able to make her blush anymore. 'If she stopped blushing around him, would that mean that she doesn't like him anymore?' his mind wandered and wondered.

"It looks like I have to translate the sentences into Japanese," Sakuno said, breaking Ryoma out of his thoughts. He saw Sakuno looking through the worksheet she had to do for homework.

With his mind back on the topic at hand, he took the worksheet form her to look at it himself. "Piece of cake," he said. He gave it back to Sakuno and explained it some more to her. "It looks like that the vocabulary used here is focused around family and friends."

"Okay, so this first sentence looks easy. It says 'My mother is strong.' Right?" Sakuno asked her boyfriend.

"Close. It actually says 'brother,' not 'mother.'" After explaining how to tell the difference between the spelling of "brother" and "mother," Sakuno was able to finish most of the assignment on her own. Ryoma began to study his girlfriend while she was working.

Her silky hair was down today, flowing all the way to her waist. Her eyes were beautiful—always shining with happiness when he was around. She could get whatever she wanted from Ryoma with those eyes of hers. Ryoma's eyes traveled down to her cute little nose and then to her cheeks. He loved it when she blushed, which was what Sakuno was doing right now. She could feel him staring at her again, but she wanted to finish her homework quickly so she let it go. Then Ryoma looked down to her lips. She always looked so cute when she would form her lips in an "o" whenever she was pouting. Right now, though, she was softly biting them in determination to finish her homework. Her lips were so soft, and smooth, and perfect…

"Ryoma-kun, I need help again. What does this one say? What's that big word mean?" Sakuno interrupted his thoughts.

Ryoma shook his head to clear out his distractions, and then he took the paper from Sakuno. He discovered that the big word she didn't understand was "amazing."

"It says, 'My friends and family are amazing,'" Ryoma helped her.

"Oh, thanks, Ryoma-kun." Then she went back to working on her homework diligently. As Sakuno became focused on her homework assignment again, Ryoma's thoughts wandered where they left off.

…Sakuno is perfect. Her looks and her personality make her so beautiful. 'I'm sure the other guys in school have noticed her too. Some of those stupid guys have actually tried asking her out!' Ryoma began to get jealous after thinking that. 'She's on her way to having her own fanclub sometime soon. Then there will be even more guys fighting for her attention.' He was starting to get worried. He didn't like sharing attention with other guys. He only wanted Sakuno to pay attention to him. 'I'm going to have to get the help of my senpais to foil anybody's plans of any guy trying to start a fanclub for Sakuno.'

After making himself jealous, he began to look over Sakuno again, but this time possessively. She was his, and nobody was going to take her from him. Nobody was going to lay a finger on her. Staring at her face made him calm down again. His eyes trailed down from her brilliant eyes to her perfect, soft lips again. He didn't realize that he was getting closer and closer to her until she said something.

"I need help on this last one, Ryoma-kun," she said while still looking down at her paper, frustrated that she couldn't figure out the last sentence on her homework assignment.

Since Ryoma was so close to her, he just looked over her shoulder to see what it said. Then his thoughts all clicked together as to why he was so worried and jealous all the time because of her. He smirked when saw what she had to translate. With his thoughts still occupied on Sakuno, he lowered to her ear and whispered, "Let me show you what it means."

Sakuno almost jumped when he whispered in her ear. She didn't realize that he was that close to her! Facing Ryoma, her eyes widened as she realized how close his face was to hers all this time. "Sh-Show me?" Sakuno squeaked.

Ryoma smirked at her and responded, "Hn." He brought his face closer to hers, lowering his lips to her lips. At first he would just lightly brush his lips to hers, but he soon started to kiss her slowly.

"E-Eh?" Sakuno got out between kisses, not understanding what this had to do with her homework.

Ryoma smirked again. She was just so cute when she never understood things like this. He grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his lap, and started to kiss her lips again, but this time with more force. Finally, Sakuno began to shyly kiss him back. She felt him smirk against her lips.

Then in between kisses, Ryoma started to whisper to her. "I…" Kiss. "Love…" Kiss. "You." Kiss. He stopped kissing her after he said the last word to stare into her eyes.

Sakuno was a little shocked upon hearing those words from Ryoma. She just always assumed that she would have been the first to say those words to Ryoma, since Ryoma was always so slow at letting his affections for her be known. Sakuno was joyously happy, though, when Ryoma said those words to her first.

"I l-love you, too, R-Ryoma-kun," Sakuno stuttered and blushed. Ryoma gave her his trademark smirk when he saw that he made her stutter and blush again.

"Ready to go?" Ryoma asked Sakuno. He wanted to "finish" enjoying his Friday night with Sakuno somewhere else instead of inside the school building.

"H-Hai," Sakuno still stuttered. With the blush on her face, she started to pack her school things away in her bag. Just as she was about to grab her homework assignment to stuff away, she remembered that she still had to write out that last sentence.

"Oh, Ryoma-kun, you still didn't tell me what this last sentence meant," Sakuno said cluelessly while looking up at Ryoma.

Ryoma mentally slapped himself. Sometimes Sakuno could be so slow to catching on to things. But then he smirked and said, "Mada mada dane, Sakuno." He trapped Sakuno between himself and the desk and started kissing her again. He will just have to "help" Sakuno "finish" her homework assignment at school this Friday afternoon. And he will make sure that she completely understands her "homework assignment" as well.


	11. Surprise Ticket

Ch. 11 – Surprise Ticket

Ryoma was at his beloved tennis practice this afternoon, practicing with Momo. He was slightly distracted, though, with Sakuno watching him through the fence. Only _slightly_. Nobody could tell except for himself that his focus was a little off today. It's just that he couldn't stop thinking about her today. He didn't even know why; today was just like every other day. But today was different. She was on his mind _constantly_.

Okay, so maybe he did know why he was thinking about her so much today. Earlier this morning his father told him that he would not be accompanying him to America while Ryoma participated in the US Open. The fact that Ryoma was playing in the US Open was no surprise to him—he knew about that months ago. He was surprised because his father said that since there will be an extra ticket, he can bring any friend he chooses to replace his father's spot.

After knowing he could choose any friend, Ryoma's mind kept wandering back to Sakuno. Ever since he knew months ago that he would be participating in the US Open this year, he was worried about leaving her here in Japan alone…and maybe worried that he would miss her—a lot. He would never admit that last part to anyone, though.

Now that he can bring a friend, he wants to bring Sakuno. That way, he won't have to leave her behind while he's in the US. There was only one thing that was holding him back from asking her. 'Will it be awkward?' Ryoma thought. 'Two sixteen year olds in a different country for two weeks-- alone. Hn, I don't think that Coach Ryuuzaki will be too thrilled. My Oyaji, on the other hand, would be ecstatic about this. Che, and his remarks would scar me for life.'

"Hey, Echizen," Momo broke him out of his thoughts.

"Eh?" Ryoma looked at Momo.

"Isn't that your dad over there? By the fence?" Momo pointed to the man dressed as a monk behind the fence.

Ryoma looked where Momo was pointing. Sure enough, there was a man dressed in a black robe behind the fence. His old man was staring straight at Sakuno—walking right towards her, wearing his mischievous grin. 'Heck no,' Ryoma thought, 'There is no way he's gonna act perverted around _my _girl.'

"Oyaji!" Ryoma yelled out, capturing the monk's attention. The monk looked over at Ryoma and grinned.

"Ah, Ryoma!" he replied. "I was just looking for you!" Ryoma's father walked onto the courts, making sure he was being noticed by all of the Regulars there.

'Liar. I just saw you staring at Sakuno,' Ryoma thought. "What do you want, Oyaji?"

"I think you forgot to pick these up on your way to school," he said, holding up the extra ticket. "I told you you could bring a friend of your choice along with you to the US Open. I thought you might have needed these today, especially at tennis practice, to give them to your friend. Especially since the only friends you have are from tennis. My boy, when are you going to get a social life, huh? There's more to life than tennis, you know."

"I know, Oyaji. Now go!" Ryoma said through clenched teeth, swiping the extra ticket out of his father's hand.

"Sheesh, you don't have to be so snipey," his father complained.

Ryoma just walked away, turning his back on his father.

"A thank you would be nice! Especially since I'm your old man!" the monk yelled out.

Ryoma, not even turning around, said, "Mada mada dane."

"Che, cranky adolescent son of mine," Nanjiroh murmured under his breath, but he left the courts anyway.

Once Ryoma's father left, all the Regulars started talking at once.  
"Echizen! Take me with you!"

"Fssh…who would wanna take you, Porcupine head?"

"O'chibi! Why didn't you ask me, nya?"

"Saa, Echizen, why did you wait so long to tell us you had an extra ticket?"

"BURNING! I want to go to the US Open!!"

"Somebody mature should go with you to look after you properly."  
"According to my data, there is a 100% possibility that you will reap the best benefits if you take me with you."

"Echizen, don't let your guard down."

All of the Regulars—except for Tezuka-- started to walk towards Ryoma, asking him questions all at the same time. Ryoma started to walk slowly backwards towards the tennis fence door.

"RYOMA-SAMA!! CHOOSE ME!!!" Tomoka suddenly yelled, running towards him.

When the Regulars saw Tomoka running towards Ryoma, they all started to sprint towards him too. They wanted that extra ticket as much as Tomoka did, and they all started chasing Ryoma down.

Ryoma sweat-dropped when he saw them starting to run after him. It only took him a second to realize that he better get on the move too. He sprinted for his life out of the tennis courts. While he was running out, he almost ran over Sakuno, so he decided to grab her hand and bring her along too so she wouldn't be trampled on by the others.

Ryoma and Sakuno ran around the school, trying to lose the childish chasers that consisted of the Regulars and Tomoka.

"RYOMA-SAMA, GET BACK HERE!" Tomoka yelled, as they ran past the tennis shed.

Running in a crazy route didn't do any good to lose the chasers either. "BURNING! This is no match for Taka!!"

After running around the school building four times, Ryoma decided to check the school entrance.

"It's locked!" he exclaimed when the doors wouldn't budge.

"Umm, Ryoma-kun, they're getting closer!" Sakuno started to get nervous.

He looked behind her and saw that they really were getting too close for comfort. "C'mon, let's go!" He grabbed Sakuno's hand, and they were, once again, on the run.

"O'chibi! I'll give you a year supply of my favorite toothpaste if you give me the extra ticket, nya!" Eiji tried to deal with him.

"No offense, Eiji-senpai, but your favorite toothpaste is not to my liking!" Ryoma yelled back.

Then, with a glint in his glasses, Inui tried Eiji's idea of making a deal, "Echizen, if you choose me, you'll never have to try my Inui juices ever again!"

"I don't believe you, Senpai! Mada mada dane!!"

After running their fifth lap around the school, Ryoma sensed that Sakuno was getting tired. 'We need to get out of here—fast,' he thought.

Turning around one more corner of the school building, Ryoma pushed Sakuno into a darkened nook of the building. Usually nobody noticed it because it was always shaded by the shadows of the school building or surrounding trees, but Ryoma found it one day after school while he was waiting for Sakuno by their sakura tree.

"Aah--," Sakuno started to scream as she fell from being pushed into the nook. Ryoma landed on top of her, but quickly stifled her scream by covering her mouth with his hand.

"Shh," he softly silenced her. Then they heard footsteps getting louder, then softer, as the Regulars and Tomoka ran past the dark nook.

"They didn't see us," Sakuno whispered.

"Yeah, but they'll still be looking for us for awhile. Let's go hide back here," Ryoma said as he started to walk towards the back of the nook. Once they reached the back wall, Ryoma showed Sakuno a secret ladder to the roof. "Climb up there."

Sakuno looked up the ladder. The roof was a long way up the ground. She gulped, "A-All the way u-up?"

"Hn, I'll be right behind you," Ryoma assured her. Ryoma let Sakuno go ahead of him on the ladder, just in case she got clumsy and he needed to catch her.

Once they reached the top, Sakuno dropped to the ground, panting. Ryoma sat down and leaned against the wall, slightly tired from the chase. He brought Sakuno over to him so that her head was lying in his lap. Ryoma let her stay there until she was caught her breath.

After he was sure that her breathing was regular again, he slowly sat up straight, saying, "You think they're gone now?"

Sakuno slowly got out of his lap, and stood up. She looked over the edge and saw the Regulars and Tomoka standing outside the school entrance, all scratching their heads wondering where they have gone.

"Guess not," Ryoma said who was suddenly behind Sakuno. She jumped, not expecting anybody to be right behind her. He chuckled, and brought his arm around her waist. "It's just me, Sakuno," he told her and kissed her on top of her head.

Sakuno blushed and stuttered out, "R-Ryoma-kun."

They both stood there for awhile, with Sakuno in Ryoma's arms, watching their friends down below. Finally, the Regulars and Tomoka walked out the school gates and headed home.

"Well, I guess we can go home now, too," Sakuno said. She started to walk towards the door on the roof.

"Not yet," Ryoma quickly grabbed her wrist, "We need to talk."

Sakuno's heart skipped a beat. She was sure that they were finally going to have the "talk" of him letting her know that he can't be with her anymore if he wants to pursue his dream. She knew it was coming. And it will most likely be now, since this was the time he was returning to the US Open again.

"N-No, it's okay, R-Ryoma-kun. We don't have to talk—I-I understand," she stuttered out as she tried to hide her tears. She wanted to get away before Ryoma could see her crying, but since Ryoma was still holding on to her wrist, all she could do was slowly walk backwards towards the door.

"You understand? What do you mean?" Ryoma asked.

"I-I understand that y-you have to leave," Sakuno started. She was almost to the door now. "A-And th-that you want to pursue your dream." Her hand found the door handle. "A-And that in order to do so, y-you'll h-have to b-break up with me t-to f-focus on that dream." Her tears started to spill, and she wanted to leave now. She turned the door handle she found with her free hand and started to open it.

BAM!

Ryoma placed both hands beside her and pushed the door closed. He had her trapped between his hands to make sure she wouldn't get away. Sakuno looked up at him, and saw that he had confusion and hurt written all over his face.

"What are you talking about, Sakuno? Where did you get that idea?" He demanded, staring straight into her eyes.

Sakuno didn't answer. All she could do was let her tears fall.

"Where did you get that idea, Sakuno?" Ryoma asked again, closing his eyes in frustration.

"I-I just always th-thought that you would break up with me e-eventually because you w-would h-have to go b-back to A-America to f-focus. A-And I would j-just be a b-burden."

"Who told you that?" Ryoma angrily asked, eyes now open again.

"A-Ano…"

"Sakuno, tell me," Ryoma warned.

"I-I o-overheard some girls t-talking in the bathroom a-at school today," Sakuno answered and lowered her head.

"Look at me," he told her. She didn't look up. "Look at me!"

This time she looked up. "Do you remember what I told you last week?" he asked.

"W-What do you m-mean?"

"In the classroom? Do you remember what I told you?"

"Th-that you l-loved me," she answered quietly.

"Right, and I _still_ love you," Ryoma said very clearly for her to understand.

"B-But Ryoma-kun loves tennis too. The g-girls in the bathroom said that R-Ryoma-kun w-would do whatever it takes to--"

"I don't give a crap about what those girls said!" Ryoma interrupted her. "It doesn't matter what they say! It only matters what I say! And I say that I love you!"

"I kn-know you love me, R-Ryoma-kun. But they said that in order for you to r-reach your d-dream, you w-would have to l-leave me behind eventually," Sakuno's tears were still falling.

"Well, they're wrong," Ryoma growled.

"No, Ryoma-kun! They're not wrong! I would just be a burden to you; you're always saving me from the all the troubles I get myself into! I don't want to be the cause of your not being able to become a professional tennis player!" Sakuno yelled out.

Then she cried out, and started to bawl even harder, "I understand that you need to leave me behind! It's okay to leave me behi—"

"There's no way in heck I'm leaving you behind," Ryoma interrupted her again, and this time, he kissed her hard on the lips. Sakuno tried to push him away, but Ryoma only grabbed her hands and placed them up against the wall. She was no use against his strength.

When Ryoma felt Sakuno stop fighting against him, he let go of her hands and placed one hand behind her neck and the other around her waist, bringing her closer to him.

"I'm not letting you go, Sakuno. I'm not going to leave you behind—ever," Ryoma told her with his lips hovering right above hers. Then he kissed her again, and this time, Sakuno responded.

Ryoma felt Sakuno beginning to kiss him, but with some new-found fire he never knew she had. She was kissing him just as rough as he was kissing her, with her arms around his neck and her hands making their way through his hair.

Sakuno, running out of breath, slowly started to pull away. Both were panting due to lack of air, but Ryoma kept kissing her anyway. While she was catching her breath, Ryoma brushed his lips to her blushing cheeks, her forehead, her closed eyelids, and eventually back to her lips.

Then he rested his forehead against hers and looked straight into her eyes, holding her hand. "I'm never going to leave you behind, Sakuno. In fact, the reason why my senpais didn't know I had an extra ticket was because I wanted to give it to you. Will you come with me?" he whispered the last question, hope in his eyes.

Sakuno's eyes lit up with happiness and excitement. Then she smiled and said, "Of course I'll come with you, Ryoma-kun."

Ryoma gave her one of his rarely seen beautiful, handsome smiles and picked her up and spun her around. When he gently put her back down, he kissed her softly on the lips and said, "I love you, Sakuno."

Sakuno blushed. "I l-love you too, R-Ryoma-kun," she stuttered out. He never failed to make her stutter and blush when he said those words to her, and Ryoma smirked back in return, loving the power he had to make her melt and fall in his arms.

"C'mon, I'll walk you home," he said and took her hand.

They walked out the roof door, and out of the school building. When they reached the gates, Ryoma and Sakuno was met by Ryuuzaki Sumire and Nanjiroh.

"Finally, my brat of a son is here!" Nanjiroh announced.

Ryuuzaki Sumire walked up to Sakuno and Ryoma and glared at them, "Where were you two? Are you aware that it is nine p.m. on a school night? I was worried sick about you, Sakuno!"

"G-Gomen, Obaa-chan," Sakuno replied.

"What were you two doing so late at school?!" Sakuno's Obaa-chan asked, clearly still upset that she was not able to find her granddaughter earlier.

"Yes, what were you two doing so late tonight, Ryoma?" Nanjiroh smirked. "Is my boy finally growing up? Haha!"

Sakuno blushed a deep red, and Ryoma glared hard at his father.

Ryoma answered, "We were discussing my extra ticket for the US Open, and I chose Sakuno to come."

"What?!" Sumire yelled out.

"Excellent choice, my boy! You really _are_ growing up after all!" Nanjiroh exclaimed to the world.

Sumire turned around to glare at Nanjiroh. "How could you let your sixteen year old son bring his girlfriend to the United States _alone_ with _no supervision?_"

"He's a sixteen year old boy—it's only natural he would want to bring his girlfriend, and I already told him that he can bring whoever he chose. I can't take back what I said," Nanjiroh smirked, clearly wanting Sakuno to go with Ryoma.

Ryoma, seeing the distress Sakuno's grandmother was in, stepped in and said, "Coach Ryuuzaki, I will assure you that no harm will be done to Sakuno. I'll take care of her. Nothing's going to happen."

Muffled laughter and remarks of Nanjiroh saying, "He'll take care of her alright," was gratefully unheard by Sumire.

"I'm holding you to that promise, Ryoma," Sumire glared, "And if anything happens to her—even one little scratch—I'm blaming you, and you will pay for it!"

"I promise you that not even a scratch will be seen on Sakuno," Ryoma answered.

"Guidelines will be discussed, and only if you agree to these guidelines will I allow Sakuno to go to the US Open with Ryoma," Sumire hesitantly agreed to let Sakuno go.

"Oh, come on, Granny," Nanjiroh came in, "let these two kids have some fun! They're young and in love!"

Sumire bonked Nanjiroh on the head with her fist. "That is exactly why there will be guidelines! Maybe if you weren't Ryoma's father I wouldn't have to worry about him being perverted! But you have the most perverted mind I've ever known, and I don't know how much you've contaminated Ryoma's thoughts!"

"What are you talking about? I'm a monk! I'm a perfect father!"

Sumire grabbed Nanjiroh by the ear and started to drag him towards the coffee shop, "We are discussing guidelines NOW!"

"Ow! Ouch! Let go of my ear, you old hag!" Nanjiroh cried, struggling to break free of her grasp.

Ryoma and Sakuno watched them fight and struggle to the coffee shop with sweat-drops on their faces, speechless.

"Sh-Should we follow them? Just to make sure my Obaa-chan doesn't hurt your father?" Sakuno asked, worried.

"Che, nah, my Oyaji deserves it," Ryoma smirked. Then he faced Sakuno and held out his hand and asked, "Shall we get going then?"

"Sure," Sakuno smiled and took his hand.

Ryoma placed his hat on her head and walked Sakuno home towards the sunset.


	12. Never Let You Go

**Ch. 12 – Never Let You Go**

Sakuno watched Ryoma play his first match at the US Open. Yes, Sakuno's Obaa-chan finally agreed to let her go with Ryoma under certain conditions. The guidelines were as follows:

Ryoma and Sakuno must stay in their own separate hotel rooms.

Ryoma must order a body guard to make sure that nobody creeps into Sakuno's room. (Ryoma quickly accepted this one. He knew that Sakuno was pretty and that once the American boys saw her, they would try to follow her in her room. Oh, heck no was Ryoma going to allow that to happen!)

The body guard must also make sure that neither Ryoma nor Sakuno sneak into each other's room at night. (Yeah right, like Ryoma was going to tell that body guard _all_ of the specifications…Ryoma might just conveniently "forget" this specification from Sumire.)

"Game, set, and match! Echizen!" the umpire declared, breaking through Sakuno's thoughts. As Ryoma finished his match, he looked up in the stands and gave his handsome smirk to Sakuno. Sakuno blushed knowing that that smirk was for her. The girls around her, though, thought that he was smirking at them, and they started squealing uncontrollably. Sakuno flinched due to the sudden outbursts from the girls.

When Sakuno looked back down, Ryoma was nowhere to be found on the court. Then she heard a deep male voice say to her, "Miss Ryuuzaki, please come with me."

Sakuno looked up to where the voice came from and saw a huge, dark, muscular man towering above her. She recognized him as the body guard that Ryoma specifically assigned to her. His name was Yasuo, but his looks seemed otherwise. He was also Ryoma's only body guard who was happily married. Ryoma made sure that the body guard watching over Sakuno would think of her nothing as more than a little sister, which ruled out all of his other single body guards.

Yasuo led the way through the overcrowded stadium while Sakuno held onto the back of his shirt so she wouldn't get lost. As they were walking through, Sakuno caught a glimpse of Ryoma surrounded by photographers and interviewers. He kept trying to walk away, looking annoyed because of all the questions he was being bombarded with. It looked as if they were headed in the same direction, but once Ryoma glanced over and saw Sakuno, he immediately stopped walking and started to answer their questions. Sakuno, confused, gave him a questionable look. Why did he stop walking towards the same direction when he saw her? Did he not want to see her? Did she do something wrong…maybe she didn't cheer loud enough for him during his match? All these questions circled through Sakuno's head.

Sakuno's thoughts stopped when Yasuo led her to a door that was right off the side of the court Ryoma just played on. He suddenly stopped walking and motioned for Sakuno to walk through the door. Sakuno walked in and was amazed at the huge room she was in.

She wasn't exactly quite sure what the room was or where she was to go. At the entrance is another door to go through which led to a lounge area. There were two mini tan leather sofas and a tan leather chair around an oval-shaped glass table. The lighting in the lounge was dim, but still comfortable enough to be considered bright enough. Once she made her way past the lounge and through the opening in the wall, there was a room filled with benches and closet-like doors. To the right was a mirrored-wall hallway. Right as Sakuno was making her way over to the hallway, she started to hear some voices that were coming from just outside the lounge door.

At first she couldn't make out what they were saying, or who was talking, but then she heard an oh-so-familiar voice, "Hn. Fine, but _only _one interview, and they will have to wait 'til after I shower."

"Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno whispered, edging back towards the lounge entrance, trying to see if Ryoma was inside the same room as her. She looked around the corner and saw that the door entrance was slightly opened. That must've been how she heard all the voices suddenly. Through the crack of the door opening, she could see that white hat that Ryoma wore so often.

Sensing that she wasn't supposed to be seen through the opening, Sakuno quickly hid behind the corner past the lounge.

"Hn, bye. I'll contact you after my shower, but I'm only giving you a short interview because I don't want to do this," Ryoma's voice was getting louder as he approached the entrance.

"Ok, that's fine, Echizen. Any interview from you, no matter how short, is extraordinary for us," Ryoma's manager told him. Then footsteps could be heard walking away.

Once his annoying manager was gone, Ryoma walked through the door entrance and into the lounge.

"Sakuno?" Ryoma called out. He told the body guard to bring her here immediately after the match so the press wouldn't see them walking out the court together. He doesn't want the media to antagonize Sakuno with questions. And he especially doesn't want his fans to know who exactly his girlfriend is; Ryoma can't risk Sakuno getting hurt by his fangirls.

"Sakuno?" he called out again.

Sakuno walked out around corner and shyly said, "H-Hai, R-Ryoma-kun." She walked towards Ryoma and gave him her beautiful smile, "Congratulations on your match, Ryoma-kun!"

Ryoma smiled at her and pecked a kiss on her cheek, "Arigatou, Sakuno."

"Um, Ryoma-kun?" Sakuno asked.

"Hn?" he answered.

"Why did Yasuo bring me to your locker room?"

"I didn't want my fans to see me walking out with you…you know, they might get a little crazy. And I didn't want the paparazzi bombarding you either. The locker room has a back exit that the fans don't know about. I have a cab waiting there to take us back to our hotel," Ryoma gave a surprisingly thorough explanation.

"So," Ryoma started, "let's get going."

"But didn't you just tell that person before you came in that you would give him an interview?" Sakuno asked, a little confused.

"Shoot. I forgot about that. Hn," he thought, "technically, I just said I would _contact_ him after my shower, not necessarily give him an _interview_ after my shower."

Upon hearing the word _shower_, Sakuno started blushing a deep red. She knew that she was in Ryoma's locker room, but the purpose of the locker room didn't even cross her mind until now. Of course Ryoma would use the locker room to shower right after his match—he worked up a sweat out on the court after every match. Sakuno became more and more nervous the more she thought about the purpose of the locker room. Where was she supposed to go while he was showering? She didn't want to stay in here with him; that would be too embarrassing and awkward.

"O-oh, s-so you have to t-take a shower here then," Sakuno stuttered, whispering quietly to herself. She didn't think that Ryoma heard her talking to herself, but, unfortunately for her, his attentive cat-like senses caught it.

Ryoma smirked at her, "Yeah, I think I'll shower right now actually." He started walking closer to Sakuno and put his arms around her waist, bringing her closer to him.

Sakuno's eyes widened, and she started to blush even deeper. Ryoma chuckled and brushed his lips by her ear, "Do you really think I would put poor innocent Sakuno through the torture of being in my locker room when I'm showering?" He then kissed her right above her ear.

Then he backed up a bit and grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Just kidding, Sakuno," he winked.

"Ryoma-kun!" Sakuno blushed again and slapped his arm. "That's not funny!"

Ryoma started to laugh, "Don't worry, I was planning on showering back in my own room at the hotel. You're just so much fun to tease." Ryoma grabbed her hand again and led her out the back entrance where the cab was waiting.

Ryoma was back in his own hotel room. He just finished his quick shower and changed into his sweats. Looking out his window, he noticed that it was getting dark out pretty early. "Looks like storm clouds," Ryoma said to himself. Then, a rumble was heard in the distance. "Yup, storm clouds."

Knock, knock. Somebody was at the door. "One hundred bucks it's Sakuno," he smiled. Sakuno must already be scared of the upcoming storm. Ryoma doesn't mind Sakuno's fear though. He enjoyed being the person she went to for protection and comfort. And, besides, it gave him an excuse to hug and stay close to her.

Ryoma walked over and opened the door. Sakuno was standing there, blushing, with her head hung down a little as if she were ashamed.

"A-Ano," Sakuno stammered. She didn't know what to say. When she heard the thunder rumble, she just wanted to be by Ryoma. He made her feel safe, but she didn't want to tell that to him. She was too shy to say that.

Ryoma was contemplating whether or not to stare at Sakuno until she told him the reason for coming over, but he decided that would be mean since he knew her deepest fear was storms. He sighed and let her in, "Heard the thunder?"

"H-hai," Sakuno nodded, a little embarrassed of her fear.

"Have a seat on the couch. I'll make some popcorn and we can watch a movie," Ryoma suggested.

Sakuno smiled. He always did everything he could to take her mind off of the storms. Sakuno sat down on the couch and leaned on the armrest.

Ryoma came around the corner from the kitchen, back with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn. He sat himself between Sakuno and the armrest she was resting on. Sakuno started to sit up straight when Ryoma sat between her and the armrest, but Ryoma pulled her back down and said, "You can lean on me.

Sakuno blushed and took Ryoma's offer. As Ryoma noticed that Sakuno was starting to lean back on Ryoma, he quickly repositioned himself so that she would be in his lap. When she was settled in leaning on Ryoma, he wrapped both arms around her waist and set the popcorn bowl in her lap. Then he turned on the TV and started playing whatever movie was in the DVD player.

Sakuno was very focused on the movie, but whenever the thunder boomed, she would jump and would tense up. Ryoma noticed how tense she got, so every time the thunder came, he just squeezed his arms around her tightly, letting her know that he had her and she was going to be okay.

It was getting late, and the movie was only half way over. Sakuno would bob her head onto Ryoma's shoulder, but then she would wake up every time she felt her head touch Ryoma. This happened for ten more minutes, until Ryoma whispered, "It's okay; you can go to sleep." And he lightly pushed her head onto his shoulder.

While Sakuno started to drift asleep, Ryoma stared at her, keeping his arms wrapped around her. She was the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Having Sakuno here in his arms while he was in the US for a tournament, Ryoma realized that he was never going to let Sakuno go, even for tennis. He liked the feel of Sakuno in his arms more than the feel of a tennis racket in his hands. He liked to smirk teasingly at Sakuno more than he liked to smirk triumphantly at his opponents. He liked winning Sakuno's heart more than winning a grand slam tournament. He knew that he liked Sakuno more than he liked tennis.

It was then that Ryoma decided he would give up anything for this girl. He wanted to keep her forever.

Ryoma smiled to himself and lightly kissed Sakuno on the top of her head, which was resting on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Sakuno a little tighter and whispered in her ear, "I'm never going to let you go." Ryoma drifted to sleep, content with holding the most beautiful thing in the world in his arms.


	13. Time for You

**Ch. 13 – Time for You**

Ryoma and Sakuno were once again back in Japan, with Ryoma being the US Open Champion. Previously enjoying the bliss of being the Champion in America with Sakuno, Ryoma now had to focus on catching up with school while still being on his high school tennis team. Usually school came easy to him, so he never had any problem before catching up on his work, but this semester was different. This semester he was taking photography to fulfill his art requirement for graduation. Ryoma didn't understand art whatsoever, and he had no way of out of this class since it was a requirement.

In fact, Ryoma was in his photography class right now.

"Echizen, please come to the front," his teacher called him as class was dismissed.

Ryoma slowly walked up to his teacher, dreading what he was going to hear.

"Echizen," his teacher started, his face softening to show sympathy, "I know you are a straight 'A' student and are currently busy with your professional tennis schedule, but I cannot accept this project you turned in for your final. If I accept this as your final, your grade will significantly slip and will affect your participation on the tennis team. All of these pictures are of your cat; it just doesn't work for your cat to fulfill all the requirements that each photo needs to have. Because I know that you are a good student, and participating on the tennis team is important to you, I am allowing you to redo this project. Perhaps it would be helpful if you have one of your classmates assist you while you're out taking your photographs."

"Hai, Sensei. Thank you." Ryoma left the room as quickly as possible—he didn't want to be late for tennis practice.

Walking home together after practice, Sakuno noticed that Ryoma seemed to have a lot on his mind.

"Ryoma-kun, are you okay?" Sakuno asked, worry evidenced in her eyes.

"Huh?" Ryoma asked, tired.

"Are you alright?" Sakuno placed her hand on his head, checking his temperature.

"I'm fine, just tired is all."

"Are you sure? You seem a little stressed out ever since we got back from the U.S."

"It's just that I have a pretty busy schedule since I got back," Ryoma sighed. Then he decided to just let it all out. "I mean, I've been having so many interviews after winning the U.S. Open, finals week is coming up for school, I've got tennis practice every day, and I'm failing photography class. If I fail that class, I won't be able to play on the tennis team anymore, and Nationals is on Saturday. Oh yeah, and I can't forget about all the chores that I'm expected to do at home." Ryoma grunted in frustration.

"Photography class? I had that class last year. I can help you, you know," Sakuno offered.

Ryoma nodded his head, accepting Sakuno's offer.

"And I can help you with your chores too so you can use that time to study for your finals."

"I can't let you do that, Sakuno. Don't you have to study for your finals, too?" he asked.

They stopped in front of Sakuno's door and Sakuno thought about that for awhile. "Well, y-yes…but I can study for my finals while you're at tennis practice!" Sakuno excitedly looked up at Ryoma, happy that she found a solution. His eyes showed that he was exhausted.

"Ryoma-kun, you're tired; please let me help you."

"…Hai…" he reluctantly said.

" Okay, give me the list of all the photography terms of which you have to take pictures, and I'll think of some ideas for you tonight. And, tomorrow, I'll come over to your house after tennis practice so I can help out with your chores while you study. I'll even make you supper," she smiled.

Ryoma widened his eyes, surprised by his girlfriend's eagerness to help. Then he smiled and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you, Sakuno." He handed her the list of photography terms and said, "I'll see you tomorrow." Before he left, he ruffled her hair, showing his affection for her.

Ryoma met Sakuno at her door Tuesday morning to walk to school together. He knocked on the door, expecting to have to wait ten minutes like usual. Instead, Sakuno dashed out the door, nearly running him over.

"Good morning, Ryoma-kun," Sakuno said, way too awake for the morning.

"Hn," he grunted back. Ryoma was _not_ a morning person.

"I looked over your photography terms," Sakuno began as they started walking to school. "We can actually take some pictures on our way to school. Here," Sakuno nudged his arm with a camera.

Ryoma looked down and groaned, "But photography is so boring."

"Maybe you should try taking pictures of things that you like. It will make it more interesting for you."

"I did take pictures of things that I actually liked last time, but that ended up not getting me anywhere," he complained.

"Well, what were you taking pictures of?"

"…Karupin."

Ryoma heard muffled laughter by his side. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Ryoma-kun, did you really take pictures of your cat?" she laughed.

Ryoma looked at Sakuno while she was laughing. Kami-sama, he loved her laugh—he couldn't be upset with her for long. Cracking a smile, he laughed a little too. "I guess all of those pictures looked exactly the same—since I took all of them when she was sleeping," he admitted.

Finally getting her laughter under control, Sakuno suggested, "What if you took pictures related to tennis?"

Ryoma's ears perked up when he heard the word "tennis," which didn't go unnoticed by Sakuno.

"Here," Sakuno stopped by the tennis courts right before they reached the entrance of the school. "Take a quick picture of somebody playing tennis. This can be your action shot."

Ryoma took out the camera and zoomed in on the tennis player. Looking more closely, he realized that it was Horio.

*Flash*

Ryoma checked the picture he just took on his digital camera. His action shot was of Horio missing the tennis ball. "Mada mada dane, Horio," he smirked.

Then the bell rang, warning the students that class was about to begin in two minutes.

"I'll see you after tennis practice, Ryoma-kun. We'll finish your photography project then," Sakuno said as she started off for class.

Sakuno was waiting for Ryoma by the locker rooms. The Regulars just finished an intense four hour training to prepare themselves for Nationals. Ryoma walked out the door, hair still wet from his shower.

"Ready to finish your photography project?" Sakuno asked.

"Hn," Ryoma answered. "Where are we going to finish it?"

"I was thinking we could go to the tennis park down two blocks from school. Taking pictures of tennis will make your project more bearable for you."

As they were walking to the park, Ryoma held her hand and said, "Thanks again, Sakuno, for helping me with this project."

She just smiled and said, "It's fine, Ryoma-kun. Don't worry about it."

They reached the tennis park and walked inside the fence. Sakuno took out the paper that had the photography terms on it and explained each one to Ryoma. "You can use the lines on the tennis court for 'leading lines,' you can use the texture of a tennis ball as a 'close up,' and you can use your racket for 'advertising.' There are a few terms that you can't really use tennis for like 'reflection.' You'll have to use the park's pond for that, but remember, the key is to take pictures of things you like."

Ryoma nodded his head, showing he understood. He took his camera out and started to take pictures on the tennis court. Once Sakuno felt that Ryoma was getting comfortable with taking pictures, she left to go do her homework under a sakura tree by the courts.

"Only a few more to go," Ryoma told himself as he crossed off the terms he completed on his photography list. He looked around, searching for the pond to do his reflection shot.

Finally spotting it, he walked up to it, thinking of what the subject of his reflection shot would be. Staring into the pond water, he looked around at what was being reflected. He could take a picture of the reflection of sakura petals, a sakura tree, Sakuno under the sakura tree, clouds…wait…was that Sakuno? _Perfect_, Ryoma thought. Finding the subject of his shot, he held up the camera.

He then checked "reflection" off his list. The last one left was "candid portrait." Ryoma knew exactly what his subject was going to be for this. He turned around and saw Sakuno sitting under the sakura tree doing her homework. She was playing with her long, chocolate-brown hair that hung loosely and made her look like a model when the wind would blow it. A slight blush adorned her cheeks. She was wearing a white spaghetti-strap sundress that made her look all the more beautiful. He took this last picture carefully, wanting to capture her beauty in the photo.

After taking the picture, Ryoma walked up to Sakuno. Hearing him walk behind her, Sakuno looked up and asked, "Are you done already?"

"Hn."

"Can I see the pictures?" she asked, excited to see the work he's done. He handed her the camera, and she clicked through all the photos he had taken. Getting to the last picture, she blushed. "R-Ryoma-kun, why did you take pictures of me?! I d-didn't even know I was in them!"

Ryoma shrugged and smirked, "You told me to take pictures of things I like."

Sakuno didn't know what to say, so she looked down at her cell phone, blushing like a madwoman.

"Ah!" she gasped when she looked down at her phone. "It's already eight o' clock!"

"Ugh," Ryoma groaned. "I still have to do my homework for my finals tonight."

"Ryoma-kun, you must be starving! Let's go back to your house and I'll make you dinner."

The next few days were very similar to the previous, except instead of working on photography, he had to go to his interviews. Ryoma was becoming more and more exhausted every day with his intense tennis schedule and his schoolwork and his interviews. The only good thing about this week was that Sakuno had cooked dinner for him every night. And her cooking was delicious. It was so fantastic, he commented that any man who married her would be the luckiest guy in the world to have a wife who could cook that good, which, of course, made Sakuno blush like crazy.

Friday was finally here, though, Ryoma was so glad his busy week was over. He had made plans with Sakuno to hang out after school got out that day, and he was looking forward to being able to actually hang out with her.

Waiting patiently for Sakuno at her locker, Ryoma was running through the plans of tonight through his head.

"Sorry I'm late, Ryoma-kun. I hope you weren't waiting long," Sakuno apologized when she reached her locker.

"It's fine," Ryoma answered. He watched Sakuno put her books away in her locker and said, "I was thinking we could go to the park today."

"Okay," Sakuno agreed.

Ryoma took her hand and led her to the park. It was a quiet walk to the park, but Ryoma never minded that. Sakuno, however, was lost in her thoughts.

"Ne, Ryoma-kun," Sakuno paused and waited for him to look at her. "I know that you're really busy with school and tennis this week. And I know that Nationals is tomorrow. It's okay if you'd rather go practice for that instead of hanging out with me tonight, Ryoma-kun. I understand that tennis is important to you, and I've noticed that you didn't go to practice today. If you don't have time to hang out with me, you can practice for Nationals...it's okay…I understand."

Ryoma looked at her, frustrated that Sakuno was always putting him before herself, and sighed, "Sakuno, I always have time for you. No matter how busy I am with tennis or with school, I _want_ to make time for you. And right now, this is _our _time, not _tennis_ time. Now come on, there's something I want to show you."

Sakuno's eyes filled with unshed, happy tears. She never knew that Ryoma liked to make time for her as much as he did for tennis. She ran to catch up with him, and Ryoma clasped her hand in his again, smiling to himself.

Ryoma led her to a vast open grassy space encircled by sakura trees. "Now, close your eyes." He place his hands over Sakuno's eyes, making sure she couldn't see anything. He walked her to the middle of the open space and the released her. "You can open your eyes now."

Sakuno slowly opened her eyes, her mouth dropping open with what she saw. IN the middle of the grassy space were sakura petals on the ground that spelled out "Thank you, Sakuno." There were even a few hearts added.

Sakuno smiled and turned around and jumped into Ryoma's arms. Ryoma hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead.

"When did you do this?" Sakuno asked, amazed.

"I had a few extra minutes before school started."

Sakuno knew that was a lie, though, because they walked to school together, and she knew they didn't get to school _that_ early. He must've gone before he picked her up for school, waking up super early to get it all done on time. Sakuno's eyes sparkled, knowing that she was cared for by Ryoma.

Leaning forward on her tiptoes, she pecked Ryoma on the lips. Ryoma, wanting to make the moment last, pulled her back quickly and took her in for a passionate kiss.


	14. The Paparazzi Scandal

Ryoma and Sakuno were now both seventeen, and Ryoma had been gone the past two weeks playing in Wimbledon. Sakuno had been pretty lonely these past two weeks, and could not wait until Ryoma came back. Every night she would watch him play on t.v. and then after she saw him win, she would call him and leave him a message, congratulating him on the win he just had. And every night, Ryoma never failed to call her back and leave her a message to thank her and say goodnight.

Even though they would leave each other messages every day, Sakuno would replay his message and listen to it in between every class. She would even listen to it again as she walked home from school.

After Sakuno finished her homework, she decided to cook dinner so she could eat while she watched Ryoma play in the Wimbledon finals. As she was making her sushi, she again took out her cell phone to listen to Ryoma's last message:

"Hi, Sakuno. Thanks for watching my match. It means a lot, you know. I actually…ah…umm…I always listen to your previous message right before I play my next match. It…It makes me feel like you're right here with me cheering for me. Well, you have school tomorrow, so I should probably go so you can go to bed. Ja, goodnight, Sakuno."

Every single time Sakuno listened to this message, she would smile brightly at the part where Ryoma tells her he listens to her message right before his match. Hearing him pause in between words because he would get nervous and embarrassed about admitting that secret made her heart melt with happiness.

Finishing making her sushi, Sakuno carefully walked into the living room with her plate and glass in her hands. Setting her dinner on the table, she grabbed the remote and quickly scanned the t.v. to the station that was airing Ryoma's match. Then she curled up in a blanket and sat down on the couch with her cell phone in hand, ready to call Ryoma to congratulate him on his win.

As expected, Ryoma won his match. He was now the champion of Wimbledon! Quickly dialing Ryoma's number, Sakuno could barely contain her excitement. It seemed like five hours instead of the five seconds it takes to get to his voicemail to leave a message.

"Congratulations, Ryoma-kun! I'm so happy for you right now! I can't believe you just won Wimbledon; you really are truly amazing, Ryoma-kun. When you come back we will have to celebrate your victory. I can even make your favorite Japanese meal. Can't wait to see you soon, Ryoma-kun!"

Sakuno closed her cell phone after finishing her message and continued to watch the championship ceremony on t.v. Ryoma was doing his victory lap around the court, carrying his golden trophy. As Ryoma was getting ready to walk off the court, he stopped to sign some autographs for his fans, which were mostly girls.

Even through the television, Sakuno could hear ear-piercing, high-pitched screams of his fangirls in England. She rolled her eyes at the immaturity of those girls. However, she could not help but to feel a bit jealous of them as they were right there in England with Ryoma to congratulate him right away. Sakuno wished she could have been the first person to congratulate Ryoma. She wanted to be the first to tell him how proud she was of him. She wanted to be the first person to hug him after he won the championship. Now, here across the ocean, Sakuno watched on television the fangirls pushing and shoving each other to try to touch Ryoma's hand as he was signing autographs. Pure jealousy seeped into Sakuno's skin as she wished that she could be any of those girls to touch Ryoma's hand.

"Mou, I wish I was there with you, Ryoma-kun," she whispered to herself, trying to hold back tears that were threatening to fall. Not being able to hold them in any longer, Sakuno silenty cried herself to sleep on the couch.

Sakuno woke up the next morning with the sun shining through the window on her face.

"Wow, I must have fallen asleep on the couch last night. I'm surprised Obaa-chan didn't wake me up to tell me to go to my bedroom," Sakuno talked to herself.

"Well," Sakuno's grandmother came in around the corner from the kitchen, "I just couldn't bring myself to wake you up. You looked exhausted last night. Did you stay up late watching Ryoma's match on t.v.?"

"Yeah, I did," Sakuno replied, remembering those fangirls trying to grab her Ryoma.

"I've heard from his father that Ryoma's flight lands at nine this morning. I'm not sure if he's going to go to school or if he's going to go home to sleep, but either way, you still have to go to school. You should get going on getting ready because you have to leave in twenty minutes."

"Ahh! I only have twenty minutes?!" Sakuno hurriedly got to her feet and rushed up the stairs to change into her clothes. She quickly brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and put on some light make-up before rushing out the door.

"Sakuno, what about your breakfast?" her grandmother yelled right as she ran out the door.

"I don't have time for breakfast Obaa-chan! I gotta go! Bye!"

Running her whole to school, she made it to her first class with five minutes to spare. Sitting down at her desk, she saw that there was a magazine that someone left there. It was titled "Sports Weekly," with Echizen Ryoma making the cover page. Catching her interest, she decided to page through the magazine to find the article on her boyfriend.

Finding the article, she was about to start reading when she noticed more pictures to the side of the page of Ryoma. Taking a closer look, she realized there were three pictures of him.

The first one was of Ryoma holding his Wimbledon trophy up victoriously. Sakuno smiled as she saw that he wore that smirk of his on his face.

The second was of Ryoma being surrounded by fangirls. He was in the center of what looked like a circle of fifty girls. The caption underneath read: How many girlfriends does Ryoma have? Sakuno wasn't too happy with that picture.

The last picture was of a fangirl kissing Ryoma on the cheek. Again there was a caption: Is she the one for Echizen Ryoma?

Seeing the last two pictures got Sakuno upset. Even though she realized that Ryoma didn't look all too happy himself in those pictures, Sakuno still couldn't help but to get a little flared up. "Stupid fangirls," she muttered.

"I agree," a familiar voice said from behind her.

"R-Ryoma-kun!" she gasped, surprised. "How are you here already? Obaa-chan said that your flight wouldn't get in 'til nine."

He just shrugged and said, "Plane got in early." Then he smiled slightly and wrapped his arms around her. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Ryoma—"

"Everyone to your seats!" the teacher ordered the classroom, announcing the beginning of class.

Quickly, Ryoma and Sakuno ended their hug and sat in their desks, continually checking the clock until lunch break.

Finally lunch time arrived. Walking down the hallway to the cafeteria, Ryoma held Sakuno's hand.

"You know that you're hanging out with me after school, right?" Ryoma half-asked, half-demanded Sakuno.

"Of course," she giggled.

"So, why are we going to the cafeteria again? You usually bring a bento from home."

"Ano, I woke up late this morning, so I didn't have time to make one," she said sheepishly.

"Hn."

They walked for a few more seconds in silence.

"It feels good to be back home," Ryoma admitted to her.

They approached the cafeteria door, and walked in. However, right as they walked in, all the girls looked up and realized that it was Ryoma.

"AAAHH! It's Ryoma-sama!" they all screamed and ran towards him.

The fangirls all started to push and shove each other to be the first one to reach him. In the process, they ended up pushing Sakuno away from him.

When Ryoma felt Sakuno's hand slide from his grip, his eyes widened and tried to grab her, but there were too many fangirls in the way.

Tomoka, seeing her Echizen Ryoma club members getting out of hand, decided to help out Sakuno by standing up on a lunch table and screaming, "IF YOU GIRLS STILL WANT TO BE MEMBERS OF THE ECHIZEN RYOMA FANCLUB THEN YOU BETTER START TO SHOW SOME RESPECT TO HIM AND BACK OFF!"

All the fangirls sweat-dropped when they heard their President yelling at them. Still wanting to be members of the club, they all backed off and walked out of the cafeteria. Tomoka even left with them, wanting to give Sakuno some alone time with Ryoma since he just got back.

After watching all the girls leave, Ryoma looked over at Sakuno, who was still lying on the ground from being pushed. He saw that Sakuno was glaring at all the girls who just left.

"Che, stupid fangirls," she muttered again as she crossed her arms childishly.

Ryoma chuckled, "Looks like I'm rubbing off on you." Then he offered his hand to help her up.

After he helped Sakuno to her feet, she started talking again in a sarcastic tone, "Seriously, do they really not see me standing right there? They're always all over you! It's ridiculous!"

Never seeing Sakuno upset over his fangirls before, Ryoma didn't know what to do to calm her down. Not that he was trying to calm her down immediately anyway; he was enjoying seeing her all worked up like this. It rarely happens, and this was a special occasion it seemed like.

"Mou, they're always trying to get your attention. And it's annoying…" Sakuno trailed off, finishing her ranting.

"Hn, I suppose since you're always with me, you're around them almost as much as I am. You need a break from those fangirls as much as I do. And that is why we're going for a walk on a secret trail I found after school to get away from everyone."

*Ring!*

The bell signaled that lunch was over and another class was about to begin.

Ryoma bent down to kiss Sakuno on her forehead, but right as he was about to kiss her, students started to walk to their next class, and, once again, he was noticed by his fangirls.

"IT'S RYOMA-SAMA!" twenty girls screamed.

"Ugh," Ryoma groaned because the fangirls just ruined his and Sakuno's moment. Gently pushing Sakuno away from him and towards her next class he said, "We should probably get going to class so we won't get trampled on again. See you after class, Sakuno." Then he sprinted off towards his classroom, trying to evade his fangirls along the way.

Sakuno sighed, for those fangirls have stolen Ryoma's attention away from her again.

It was after school and Ryoma was waiting for Sakuno by the tennis courts. Spotting Sakuno walking towards him, he started to walk towards her as well. Grabbing her hand and pulling her towards him he smirked, "I've spent way too much time away from you."

Sakuno blushed as Ryoma kissed her lightly on the lips.

"C'mon, let's go." He grabbed her hand and led her towards the park to the secret trail.

They walked along in their comfortable and familiar silence. That was until Sakuno realized that Ryoma took a left at the intersection instead of taking a right towards the park.

"Ryoma-kun, weren't we going on a trail?" she asked, confused.

"After-school snack first," he said as they walked into an ice cream parlor. "You can have a seat. I'll order."

Sakuno walked over towards a booth. Noticing a magazine stand by her seat, she decided to look at the magazines inside. She saw a cover with Ryoma on it…with another girl. By the looks of it they were at a beach. The girl on the cover was walking side-by-side with him along the shoreline. And if that wasn't enough to make Sakuno upset, that girl was wearing a skimpy bikini. Sakuno really had had enough with all of Ryoma's fangirls, and this picture seemed that Ryoma really didn't mind them after all.

Glaring at the magazine cover, Sakuno didn't even hear Ryoma walk over with their ice cream.

"—kuno. Your ice cream is gonna melt if you don't eat it. Why are you glaring at the magazine rack?" Ryoma interrupted her staring, or more like glaring, contest.

"Who is that girl on that cover?" Sakuno asked icily as she pulled the magazine out and shoved it in front of Ryoma's face.

"Ugh, stupid paparazzi. Why do they always do that?" he complained.

"Do what, Ryoma-kun? Ruin your secret dates with other girls while you're in another country miles away from your girlfriend?" she yelled.

"No, Sakuno, you don't understand—" he tried to explain.

"Is this picture real?" Sakuno interrupted.

"Well…sorta," he said with pleading eyes. "But part of it is photo-shopped."

"Oh, let me guess, the photo-shopped part is the airbrushing on the girl, right?" Sakuno said sarcastically.

"No, Sakuno, it's more than just that," he was starting to panic as he saw that Sakuno kept interrupting him and not letting him explain. He started to panic even more when he saw tears spilling over Sakuno's face.

"I can't believe you led me on this entire time!" she screamed.  
"But, Sakuno, listen! Let me explain!" he yelled.

*SLAP*

Ryoma's eyes were wide open. _Did Sakuno really just slap me?_ he thought, surprised. He rubbed his cheek as he saw Sakuno crying and running out of the ice cream store.

Getting a hold of his senses after he got over the shock of Sakuno slapping him, he ran after her. "Sakuno!" he yelled. "Please, wait! Let me explain!"  
Sakuno stopped running and turned around. "What is there to explain?! It's clear in the picture!"

"No, no, it's not clear. It's not true. That girl is—"

"It's Ryoma! There's my boyfriend!" a girl called out from the distance and ran up to him. The girl was being followed by a crowd of photographers and reporters. "Here he is," she said as she was standing right up next to him.

The reporters and photographers gathered all around Ryoma and started bombarding him with questions.

"Is it true, Echizen?"

"Is this supermodel really your girlfriend?"  
"Did you two hook up while you were in England playing in Wimbledon?"

Ryoma pushed his way out the crowd and yelled out, "Sakuno! Wait! I don't even know what's going on!"

Sakuno stared at him for awhile, tears still streaming down her face. Then she cried out quietly, "Baka." She ran towards the park and into the woods. Finding a trail, she started to run along that so she wouldn't get totally lost.

Running through the trail, she heard thunder in the distance. Right as she was about to decide to slow down, she heard Ryoma running after her, so she sped up again. She really did not want to face him right now.

"Sakuno! Stop! You don't have to stop to talk to me, but at least stop so that you won't be going further into the woods right as a storm is about to come! Stop!" Ryoma ran after her.

Not believing Ryoma and knowing that she would have to talk to him if she stopped, Sakuno gave herself another push and ran faster.

Seeing that Sakuno wasn't slowing down, Ryoma decided to give it all he got and use his tennis speed and strength to catch up to Sakuno. "Sakuno!"

Sakuno could hear him gaining on her, but she wasn't going to give up. Gasping for air, she kept pushing herself to keep running, trying not to trip on the tree roots that were jutting out of the ground. Rain was starting to pour down while the thunder still rumbled in the distance.

Ryoma was right on Sakuno's tail. Waiting for some flat ground to tackle her so that they wouldn't fall on any protruding roots out of the ground, he kept close to her. Finally, spotting some flat land ahead, he dove towards her and tackled her onto the ground.

"Ryoma-kun, let me go!" Sakuno tried to wriggle out from underneath him.

Turning her over to face him, Ryoma straddled his legs on both sides of her and pinned her wrists above her head with his hands. Sakuno was kicking and moving around, still trying to escape his grasp. Ryoma was having a hard time maintaining his grip since they were both soaking wet from the down-pouring rain, but he managed to keep his grip tight.

"Sakuno," he started, breathing heavy from all the running they did, "just listen to me. Please, just listen to me." He sounded desperate as he repeated his last sentence.

His desperateness caught Sakuno's attention, and she stopped squirming around, looking straight at him.

He took this as his cue, and explained to her the picture. "That picture on the cover, the picture of me on the beach itself is real. They took that real picture and then photo-shopped that girl in, making it look like I was at the beach with her. But, Sakuno, I wasn't with her at the beach. You have to believe me, Sakuno. I was at the beach training by myself, and the paparazzi saw me and took my picture, and then they photo-shopped that girl in there. It's just a rumor."

He then stopped momentarily to take a breath. Then he continued, "Sakuno, I would never, _never_, cheat on you. _You_ are my girl. I love you, Sakuno. I love you! Do you understand me?!"

Sakuno stared at him, shocked. It was all just a misunderstanding, but seeing the fear in Ryoma's eyes of losing her made Sakuno start to cry silently. He didn't stop running after her because he didn't want to lose her. The fear in his eyes told Sakuno that what he was saying was the truth.

"I love you, Sakuno. Do you understand me?" he repeated again in a softer voice, his voice almost cracking. He was staring deep into her eyes, never breaking eye contact. Sakuno could feel the warmth of his breath on her face as his breathing never slowed down since they stopped running.

As the silence ensued, his grip on her wrists tightened out of nervousness.

"Sakuno…" Ryoma was almost crying. "Sakuno," he whispered, "Please, I'm telling you the truth."

Sakuno was still speechless as she stared straight back into Ryoma's eyes.

"Sa-ku-no!" he cried, shaking her gently with each syllable he enunciated. "Sakuno! Do you believe me?" Ryoma was full out crying now, and he looked like he was in extreme pain.

Not being able to handle seeing Ryoma in pain, Sakuno quickly shook her head "yes" and breathed, "Uh huh."

Ryoma breathed in, trying to stop his crying momentarily. However, now out of happiness, he shed quiet tears of joy. "Sakuno, I love you!" And then Ryoma kissed her passionately still on top of her.

They had to break their long passionate kiss to let Sakuno breathe, but Ryoma kept on planting kisses all over her face and neck.

"Sakuno," he kissed her forehead.

"I," he kissed her cheek.

"Love," he kissed her other cheek.

"You," he kissed the corner of her lips.

"So much," he kissed her neck. He then continued to kiss her all over her neck.

Hearing footsteps in the distance, Sakuno glanced over in that general direction.

"Echizen!" a voice called out. Gasps were heard as more people were gathering over. Camera clicks were and flashes were shooting non-stop.  
"Echizen, is this your girlfriend?" one asked.

"How long have you two been going out?"

Not wanting the paparazzi and reporters to interrupt his moment with Sakuno, he chose to ignore them and continued kissing Sakuno.

Sakuno, becoming very self-conscious and embarrassed about Ryoma kissing her while the paparazzi were taking pictures, stuttered, "R-R-Ryoma-kun, th-there's p-people h-here."

"Hn, I don't care," he managed to get out while he slightly lifted his lips off her neck and replaced them on her lips, kissing her passionately again.

Cameras flashed furiously. However, Sakuno could not resist the passionate kiss Ryoma was giving her, and she combed her hands through his hair. Soon, she forgot all about the paparazzi and reporters.

They kissed for so long, that the reporters and paparazzi were long gone before they started their way back home.

The next day after school, Ryoma was making his way over to Sakuno's house. He walked on in and found Sakuno cooking in the kitchen.

"Hi, Sakuno," he said as he hugged her and kissed her on the lips.

After they broke apart, he tossed a magazine onto the table. "How do you like this magazine cover?" he smirked.

Confused, Sakuno sat down at the table and picked up the magazine. The cover was of her and Ryoma kissing in the rain passionately in the woods from yesterday. Her face started to turn red as she saw how intimate the position they were in when they were kissing: Ryoma on top of her, pinning her down.

"R-Ryoma-kun! Mou, this is embarrassing!"

Ryoma laughed, "Well I, for sure, didn't mind it yesterday."

Then he grabbed her hand and led her into the living room saying, "C'mon, let's relax and watch some t.v." They sat on the couch with Sakuno resting on him.

Becoming immersed in the t.v. show they were watching, they heard Sakuno's grandmother walk in through the kitchen patio door from outside.

All of a sudden, they heard Sakuno's obaa-chan angrily and threatenly yell out, "ECHIZEN RYOMA!!!!!"

Sakuno and Ryoma faced each other and simultaneously said, "The magazine."

They both got up from the couch and Sakuno quietly said, "You should probably go fast before Obaa-chan sees you. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

Ryoma quickly kissed her before he grabbed his shoes and ran out the door.

While he was running out, Sakuno's grandmother yelled out the door, "ECHIZEN RYOMA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY GRANDDAUGHTER?! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, YOU WILL BE IN SO MUCH PAIN!" Then she threw the magazine at him.

Ryoma caught it and continued running home. He looked down at the magazine cover and wasn't able to hide the wide grin covering his face as he looked at the picture of him and Sakuno, knowing that everything between them was back to how it should be.


End file.
